THE ORIGIN OF THE 
SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL 
INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED 
STATES 
BY 
ASSISTANT SECRETARY OP THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, IN CHARGE OF 
THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 
Dr. G. BROWN GOODE 
[Reprinted from the Papers of the American Historical Association] 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 
G, P. PUTNAM’S SONS 
(£I« 3\nukerbocIur |kess 
1890 THE ORIGIN OF THE NATIONAL 
SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL 
INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED 
STATES 
Dr. G. BROWN GOODE 
BY 
ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, IN CHARGE OF 
THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 
Reprinted from the Papers of the American Historical Association] 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 
ftauhetbochti |}rcss 
i8go THE ORIGIN OF THE NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC 
AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF 
THE UNITED STATES. 
93] 
3 THE ORIGIN OF THE NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC 
AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF 
THE UNITED STATES. 
By G. Brown Goode, Ph.D., LL.D., Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution, in charge of the U. S. National Museum. 
“Early in the seventeenth century,” we are told, “the 
great Mr. Boyle, Bishop Wilkins, and several other learned 
men, proposed to leave England and establish a society for 
promoting knowledge in the new Colony [of Connecticut], 
of which Mr. Winthrop,1 their intimate friend and associate, 
was appointed Governor.” 
“Such men,” wrote the historian, “ were too valuable to 
lose from Great Britain, and Charles the Second having 
taken them under his protection in 1661, the society was 
there established, and received the title of ‘ The Royal So- 
ciety of London.’ ”2 
For more than a hundred years this society was for our 
country what it still is for the British colonies throughout 
the world—a central and national scientific organization. 
All Americans eminent in science were on its list of Fellows, 
among them Cotton Mather, the three Winthrops, and Paul 
Dudley in New England; Franklin, Rittenhouse, and Mor- 
gan in Pennsylvania; Banister, Clayton, Mitchell, and Byrd 
in Virginia, and Garden and Williamson in the Carolinas, 
while in its “ Philosophical Transactions ” were published 
the only records of American research.8 
* John Winthrop, F.R.S. [1606-76], elected Governor of Connecticut in 
1657. 
2 Elliott, “ Biographical Dictionary.” 
3 The first meetings of the body of men afterwards organized as the Royal 
Society appear to have taken place during the Revolution and in the time of 
95] 
5 6 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[96 
It was not until long after the middle of the last century 
that any scientific society was permanently established in 
North America, although serious but fruitless efforts were 
made in this direction as early as 1743, when Benjamin 
Franklin issued his circular entitled “ A Proposal for promo- 
ting useful knowledge among the British plantations in 
America,” in which it was urged “ that a society should be 
formed of virtuosi or ingenious men residing in the several 
colonies, to be called the American Philosophical Society.” 
There is still in existence, in the possession of the Philo- 
sophical Society in Philadelphia, a most interesting letter 
from Franklin to Governor Cadwallader Golden of New 
York, in which he tells of the steps which had already 
been taken for the formation of a scientific society in Phila- 
delphia, and of the means by which he hoped to make it of 
great importance to the colonies. 
Our forefathers were not yet prepared for the society, nor 
for the American Philosophical Miscellany which Franklin 
proposed to issue, either monthly or quarterly. There is no 
reason to believe that the society ever did any thing of 
importance. Franklin’s own attention was soon directed 
exclusively to his electrical researches, and his society lan- 
guished and died. 
Some twenty years later, in 1766, a new organization was 
attempted under the title of “ The American Society held at 
Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge.” 1 Franklin, 
Cromwell, and as early as 1645, we are told by Wallace, weekly meetings 
were held of “diverse worthy persons inquisitive into natural philosophy and 
other parts of human learning, and particularly of what has been called the 
New Philosophy, or Experimental Philosophy, ” and it is more than probable 
that this assembly of philosophers was identical with the “ Invisible College ” 
of which Boyle spoke in sundry letters written in 1646 and 1647. These meet- 
ings continued to be held, sometimes at the Bull-Head Tavern, in Cheapside, 
but more frequently at Gresham College, until 1660, when the first record book 
of this society was opened. Among the first entries is a reference to a design 
then entertained “ of founding a College for the promoting of Physico-Mathe- 
maticall Experimentall Learning.” Dr. Wilkins was appointed chairman of 
the society, and shortly after, the king, Charles II., having become a member, 
its regular meeting-place was appointed to be ki Gresham College. 
1 This name was adopted in 1768 to replace that first adopted in 1766, which 
was “ The American Society for Promoting and Propagating Useful Knowl- 
edge, held in Philadelphia.” 97J 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
7 
although absent in England, was elected its president, and 
the association entered upon a very promising career. 
In the meantime the few surviving members of the first 
“American Philosophical Society’’ formed, under the old 
name, an organization which in many particulars was so 
unlike that proposed in 1743 that it might almost be re- 
garded as new rather than a revival. Its membership included 
many of the most influential and wealthy colonists, and the 
spirited manner in which it organized a plan for the obser- 
vation of the transit of Venus in 1769 gave it at once a 
respectable standing at home and abroad. 
In 1769, after negotiations which occupied nearly a year, 
the two societies were united,1 and “ The American Philo- 
sophical Society held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful 
Knowledge,” has from that time until now, maintained an 
honorable position among the scientific organizations of the 
world. 
The Society at once began the publication of a volume 
of memoirs, which appeared in 1771 under the name of 
“ The American Philosophical Transactions.” 2 
From 1773 to 1779 its operations were often interrupted. 
In the minutes of the meeting for December, 1774, appears 
1 Some insight into the scientific politics of the time may be gained by read- 
ing the following extract from a letter addressed to Franklin by Dr. Thomas 
Bond, June 7, 1769 : “ I long meditated a revival of our American Philosophi- 
cal Society, and at length thought I saw my way clear in doing it, but the old 
party leaven split us for a time. We are now united, and with your presence 
may make a figure; but till that happy event I fear much will not be done. 
The Assembly have countenanced and encouraged us generously and kindly, 
and we are much obliged to you for your care in procuring the telescope, which 
was used in the late observations of the transit of Venus.” 
* A copy of the finished volume of the Transactions was presented to each 
member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, accompanied by an address as follows : 
“ As the various societies which have of late years been instituted in Europe 
have confessedly contributed much to the more general propagation of knowl- 
edge and useful arts, it is hoped it will give satisfaction to the members of the 
honorable House to find that the Province which they represent can boast of 
the first society and the first publication of a volume of Transactions for the 
advancement of the useful knowledge of this side of the Atlantic ; a volume 
which is wholly American in composition, printing, and paper, and which, we 
flatter ourselves, may not be thought altogether unworthy of the attention of 
men of letters in the most improved parts of the world. ” 8 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[98 
the following remarkable note in the handwriting of Dr. 
Benjamin Rush, one of the secretaries, soon after to be one 
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence: 
“ The act of the British Parliament for shutting up the port of Boston, for 
altering the charters and for the more impartial administration of justice in the 
province of Massachusetts Bay, together with a bill for establishing popery and 
arbitrary power in Quebec, having alarmed the whole of the American colony, 
the Members of the American Philosophical Society partaking with their 
countrymen in the distress and labours brought upon their country, were 
obliged to discontinue their meetings for some months until a mode of opposi- 
tion to the said acts of parliament was established, which we hope may restore 
the former harmony and maintain a perpetual union between Great Britain 
and the Americas.” 
This entry is especially interesting, because it emphasizes 
the fact that among the members of this infant scientific 
society were many of the men who were most active in the 
organization of the Republic, and who, under the stress of 
the times, abandoned the quiet pursuits of science, and 
devoted themselves to the national interests which were just 
coming into being. 
Franklin was President from its organization until his 
death in 1790. He was at the same time President of the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and a member of the 
Constitutional Convention, and the eminence of its leader 
probably secured for the body greater prestige than would 
otherwise have been attainable. The society, in fact, soon 
assumed national importance, for, during the last decade of 
the century and for many years after, Philadelphia was the 
metropolis of American science and literature. 
Directly after the Revolution, a similar institution was 
established in Boston—The American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences,—which was incorporated by the Legislature 
of Massachusetts in 1780, and published its first Memoirs in 
1785. This, like the Philadelphia society, owed its origin 
to the efforts of a great statesman. We find the whole 
history in the memoirs of John Adams, a man who believed, 
with Washington, that scientific institutions are the best 
lasting protection of a popular government. 99] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
9 
In a memorandum written in 1809, Mr. Adams gave his 
recollections of the circumstances which led to his deep and 
lasting interest in scientific foundations. 
“ In travelling from Boston to Philadelphia, in 1774, 5, 6 and 7, I had sev- 
eral times amused myself at Norwalk in Connecticut, with the very curious 
collection of birds and insects of American production made by Mr. Arnold ;1 
a collection which he afterwards sold to Governor Tryon, who sold it to Sir 
Ashton Lever, in whose apartments in London I afterwards viewed it again. 
This collection was so singular a thing that it made a deep impression upon me, 
and I could not but consider it a reproach to my country, that so little was 
known, even to herself, of her natural history. 
“ When I was in Europe, in the years 1778 and 1779, in the commission to 
the King of France, with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Arthur Lee, I had opportuni- 
ties to see the King’s collection and many others, which increased my wishes 
that nature might be examined and studied in my own country, as it was in others. 
“ In France among the Academicians, and other men of science and letters, 
I was frequently entertained, with inquiries concerning the Philosophical 
Society of Philadelphia, and with eulogiums on the wisdom of that institution, 
and encomiums on some publications in their Transactions. These conversations 
suggested to me the idea of such an establishment in Boston, where I knew 
there was as much love of science, and as many gentlemen who were capable 
of pursuing it, as in any other city of its size. 
“In 1779, I returned to Boston on the French Frigate ‘ La Sensible,’ with 
the Chevalier de la Luzerne and M. Marbois.2 The Corporation of Harvard 
College gave a public dinner in honor of the French Ambassador and his suite, 
and did me the honor of an invitation to dine with them. At table in the 
Philosophy Chamber, I chanced to sit next to Dr. Cooper.3 I entertained him 
during the whole of the time we were together, with an account of Arnold’s 
collections, the collection I had seen in Europe, the compliments I had heard 
in France upon the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and concluded with 
proposing that the future legislature of Massachusetts should institute an 
Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
1 Some local antiquary may make an interesting contribution to the literature 
of American museum-work by looking up the history of this collection. 
4 The Chevalier Anne Cesar de la Luzerne [1741-1821] was French Minister 
to the United States from 1779 to 1783, afterwards Minister to England. M. 
Framjois de Barbe Marbois [1745-1837] was his Secretary of Legation, and 
after the return of his chief to France, was charge d'affaires until 1785. For 
many interesting facts, not elsewhere accessible, concerning the career of these 
men in the United States, and their acquaintance with Adams, see John 
Durand’s admirable “ New Materials for a History of the American Revolu- 
tion.” New York : Henry Holt & Co., 1889. 12°, pp. i-vi, 1-310. 
3 Rev. Samuel Cooper, D.D. [1725-83], an eminent patriot, long pastor of Brattle 
Street Church in Boston, and a leading member of the corporation of Harvard. 
He was the first president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 10 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[lOO 
“ The Doctor at first hesitated, thought it would be difficult to find members 
who would attend to it; but the principal objection was, that it would injure 
Harvard College, by setting up a rival to it, that might draw the attention and 
affections of the Public in some degree from it. To this I answered,—first, 
that there were certainly men of learning enough that might compose a society 
sufficiently numerous; and secondly, that instead of being a rival to the Uni- 
versity, it would be an honor and an advantage to it. That the President and 
principal professors would, no doubt, be always members of it; and the meet- 
ings might be ordered, wholly or in part, at the College and in that room. The 
Doctor at length appeared better satisfied ; and I entreated him to propagate 
the idea and the plan, as far and as soon as his discretion would justify. The 
Doctor did accordingly diffuse the project so judiciously and effectually, that 
the first legislature under the new constitution adopted and established it by 
law. Afterwards when attending the convention for forming the constitution, 
I mentioned the subject to several of the members, and when I was appointed 
by the sub-committee to make a draught of a project of a constitution, to be 
laid before the convention, my mind and heart were so full of this subject, that 
I inserted the provision for the encouragement of literature in chapter fifth, sec- 
tion second. I was somewhat apprehensive that criticism and objections 
would be made to the section, and particularly that the ‘ Natural History ’ and 
the 4 Good humor ’ would be stricken out; but the whole was received very 
kindly, and passed the convention unanimously, without amendment.”1 
1 The provision in the State Constitution of which Mr. Adams speaks, was 
the following: 
“ The Encouragement of Literature, etc., Wisdom and knowledge, as 
well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being neces- 
sary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on 
spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts 
of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the 
duty of legislators and magistrates in all future periods of the commonwealth, 
to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of 
them : especially the university at Cambridge, public schools, and grammar 
schools in the towns, to encourage private societies and public institutions, 
rewards and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, com- 
merce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country : to counte- 
nance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public 
and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their 
dealings, sincerity, good humour, and all social affections and generous senti- 
ments among the people. ” 
“ This feature of the constitution of Massachusetts,” writes Mr. Adams’s 
biographer, “is peculiar, and in one sense original with Mr. Adams. The 
recognition of the obligation of a State to promote a higher and more extended 
policy than is embraced in the protection of the temporal interests and political 
rights of the individual, however understood among enlightened minds, had not 
at that time been formally made a part of the organic law. Those clauses 
since inserted in other State constitutions which, with more or less of fullness, 
acknowledged the same principle, are all manifestly taken from this source.” 101] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
11 
The two societies are still institutions of national import- 
ance, not only because of a time-honored record of useful 
work, but on account of important general trusts under 
their control. Although all their meetings are held in the 
cities where they were founded, their membership is not 
localized, and to be a “ Member of the American Philosophi- 
cal Society” or a“ Fellow of the American Academy,” is an 
honor highly appreciated by every American scientific man. 
The Philosophical Society (founded before the separation 
of the colonies) copied the Royal Society of Great Britain 
in its corporate name, as well as in that of its transactions, 
and in its ideals and methods of work took it for a model. 
The American Academy, on the other hand, had its origin 
“ at a time when Britain was regarded as an inveterate 
enemy, and France as a generous patron,” 1 and its founders 
have placed upon record the statement that it was their in- 
tention “ to give it the air of France rather than that of 
England, and to follow the Royal Academy rather than the 
Royal Society.2 And so in Boston, the Academy published 
“ Memoirs,” while conservative Philadelphia continued to 
issue “Philosophical Transactions.” 
In time, however the prejudice against the motherland 
became less intense, and the Academy in Boston followed 
the general tendency of American scientific workers, which 
has always been more closely parallel with that of England 
than that of continental Europe, contrasting strongly with 
the disposition of modern educational administrators to build 
after German models. 
It would have been strange indeed if the deep-seated 
sympathy with France which our forefathers cherished had 
not led to still other attempts to establish organizations 
after the model of the French Academy of Sciences. The 
most ambitious of these was in connection with the 
“Academy of Arts and Sciences of the United States of 
America,” whose central seat was to have been in Richmond, 
Virginia, and whose plan was brought to America, in 1788, 
1 Letter of Manasseh Cutler to Dr. Jonathan Stokes, August 17, 1785. 
* Cutler, l. c. 12 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[102 
by the Chevalier Quesnay de Beaurepaire. This project, we 
are told, had been submitted to the King of France and to 
the Royal Academy of Science, and had received an unquali- 
fied endorsement signed by many eminent men, among 
others by Lavoisier and Condorcet, as well as a similar paper 
from the Royal Academy of Paintings and Sculpture, signed 
by Vernet and others. A large sum was subscribed by the 
wealthy planters of Virginia and by the citizens of Richmond, 
a building was erected, and one professor, Dr. Jean Rouelle, 
was appointed, who was also commissioned “ mineralogist- 
in-chief ” and instructed to make natural history collections 
in America and Europe. The population of Virginia was 
far too scattered and rural to give any chance of success for 
a project which in its nature was only practicable in a com- 
mercial and intellectual metropolis, and the Academy died 
almost before it was born. 
“ Quesnay’s scheme was not altogether chimerical,” writes 
H. B. Adams, “ but in the year 1788 France was in no posi- 
tion, financial or social, to push her educational system in 
Virginia. The year Quesnay’s suggestive little tract was 
published was the year before the French Revolution, in 
which political maelstrom every thing in France went down. 
. . . If circumstances had favored it, the Academy of the 
United States of America, established at Richmond, would 
have become the centre of higher education, not only for 
Virginia, but for the whole South, and possibly for a large 
part of the North, if the Academy had been extended, as 
proposed, to the cities of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New 
York. Supported by French capital, to which in large 
measure we owe the success of our Revolutionary War, 
strengthened by French prestige, by liberal scientific and 
artistic associations with Paris, then the intellectual capital 
of the world, the Academy at Richmond might have become 
an educational stronghold, comparable in some degree to the 
Jesuit influence in Canada, which has proved more lasting 
than French dominion, more impregnable than the fortress 
of Quebec.” 1 
1 Copies of Quesnay’s pamphlet are preserved in the Virginia State Library 
at Richmond, and in the Andrew D. White Historical Library of Cornell 103] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
13 
Our forefathers in colonial times had their national uni- 
versities beyond the sea, and all of the young colonists who 
were able to do so, went to Oxford or Cambridge for their 
classical degrees, and to Edinburgh and London for training 
in medicine, for admission to the bar, or for clerical orders. 
Local colleges seemed as unnecessary as did local scientific 
societies. 
Many attempts were made to establish local societies 
before final results were accomplished, and the beginnings of 
the national college system had a similar history. 
In 1619 the Virginia Company of England made a grant 
of ten thousand acres of land for “the foundation of a 
seminary of learning for the English in Virginia/’ and in the 
same year the bishops of England, at the suggestion of the 
king, raised the sum of fifteen hundred pounds for the 
encouragement of Indian education in connection with the 
same foundation. A beginning was made toward the occu- 
pation of the land, and George Thorpe, a man of high stand- 
ing in England, came out to be superintendent of the 
university, but he and three hundred and forty other 
colonists (including all the tenants of the university) were 
destroyed by the Indians in the massacre of 1622. 
The story of this undertaking is told by Prof. H. B. 
Adams in the “ History of the College of William and Mary,” 
in which also is given an account of the Academia Virginien- 
sis et Oxoniensis, which was to have been founded on an 
island on the Susquehanna River, granted in 1624 for the 
founding and maintenance of a university, but was sus- 
pended on account of the death of its projector, and of 
King James I., and the fall of the Virginia Company. 
Soon after, in 1636, came the foundation of Harvard, 
University, as well as in a certain private library in Baltimore. A full account 
of this enterprise may be found in Herbert B. Adams’s “ Thomas Jefferson and 
the University of Virginia,” pp. 21-30, and other records occur in Mordecai’s 
“Richmond in By-gone Days” (2d edition, pp. 198-208), and in Goode’s 
“ Virginia Cousins,” p. 57. 
The building erected for the Academy of Sciences was the meeting-place of 
the convention of patriots and statesmen who ratified in 1788 the Constitution 
of the United States, and subsequently was the principal theatre of the city of 
Richmond. G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[104 
14 
then in 1660 William and Mary, Yale in 1701, the College 
of New Jersey in 1746, the University of Pennsylvania in 
1751, Columbia in 1754, Brown in 1764, Dartmouth in 1769, 
the University of Maryland in 1784, that of North Carolina 
in 1789-95, that of Vermont in 1791, and Bowdoin (the col- 
lege of Maine) in 1794. 
When Washington became President, one hundred years 
ago, there were no scientific foundations within this repub- 
lic save the American Academy in Boston, and in the 
American Philosophical Society, Bartram’s Botanic Garden, 
the private observatory of Rittenhouse, and Peale’s Natural- 
History Museum, Philadelphia. 
Washington’s own inclinations were all favorable to the 
progress of science; and Franklin, who would have been 
Vice-President but for his age and weakness, Adams, the 
Vice-President, and Jefferson, Secretary of State, were all 
in thorough sympathy with the desire of their chief to 
“ promote as objects of primary importance institutions for 
the general diffusion of knowledge.” All of them were Fel- 
lows of the American Philosophical Society, and the Presi- 
dent took much interest in its proceedings: the records of 
the Society show that he nominated for foreign membership 
the Earl of Buchan, President of the Society of Scottish 
Antiquaries, and Dr. James Anderson. 
Washington’s mind was scientific in its tendencies, and 
his letters to the English agriculturists, Young, Sinclair, 
and Anderson, show him to have been a close student of 
physical geography and climatology. He sent out with his 
own hand, while President, a circular-letter to the best-in- 
formed farmers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, and Virginia, and having received a considerable 
number of answers, prepared a report on the resources of 
the middle Atlantic States, which was the first of the kind 
written in America, and was a worthy beginning of the 
great library of agricultural science which has since ema- 
nated from our government press. 
In a letter to Arthur Young, dated December 5, 1791, he 
manifested great interest in the Hessian fly, an insect mak- 105] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
15 
ing frightful ravages in the wheat-fields of the Middle States, 
and so much dreaded in Great Britain that the importation 
of wheat from America was prohibited.1 It was very possibly 
by his request that a committee of the Philosophical So- 
ciety prepared and printed an elaborate and exhaustive 
report, and since its chairman was Washington’s Secretary 
of State, it was practically a governmental affair, the pre- 
cursor of subsequent Entomological Commissions, and of 
our Department of Economic Entomology.* 
The interest of Washington in the founding of a national 
university, as manifested in the provisions of his last will 
and testament, are familiar to all, and I have been interested 
to learn that his thoughts were earnestly fixed upon this 
great project during all the years of the Revolutionary War. 
It is an inspiring thought, that during the long and doubt- 
ful struggle for independence, the leader of the American 
arms was looking forward to the return of peace, in anticipa- 
tion of an opportunity to found in a central part of the rising 
empire an institution for the completing of the education of 
youths from all parts thereof, where they might at the same 
time be enabled to free themselves in a proper degree from 
local prejudices and jealousies. 
Samuel Blodget in his “ Economica,” relates the history 
of the beginning of a national university. 
“As the most minute circumstances are sometimes in- 
structing for their relation to great events,” he wrote, “we 
1 In an article recently published by Professor C. V. Riley, he sustains the 
popular belief and tradition that Cecidomya was introduced about the time of 
the Revolution, and probably by Hessian troops. lie gives interesting details 
concerning the work of the Committee of the American Philosophical Society, 
and a review of recent controversies upon this subject.—See Canadian Ento- 
mologist, xx., p. 121. 
8 Before the organization of the Department of Agriculture, another step in 
economic entomology was taken by the general government in the publication 
of an official document on silk-worms : 
1828. Mease, James. 
2i8th^^Sessiom' tDoc- No' 226 Ha of RePs- I Silk-Worms. | | 
Letter | from | James Mease, | transmitting | a treatise on the rearing of silk- 
worms, | by Mr, De Hozze, of Munich, | with plates, &c., &c. | | 
February 2, 1828.—Read and referred to the Committee on Agriculture. | 
) Washington : | Printed by Gales and Seaton | 1828. | 8°. pp. 1-108. 16 
G. Brown Goode's Paper. 
[106 
relate the first we ever heard of a national university : it was 
in the camp at Cambridge, in October, 1775, when Major 
William Blodget went to the quarters of General Washing- 
ton, to complain of the ruinous state of the colleges from the 
conduct of the militia quartered therein. The writer of this 
being in company with his friend and relation, and hearing 
General Greene join in lamenting the then ruinous state of 
the eldest seminary of Massachusetts, observed, merely to 
console the company of friends, that to make amends for these 
injuries, after our war, he hoped we should erect a noble 
national university, at which the youth of all the world 
might be proud to receive instructions. What was thus 
pleasantly said, Washington immediately replied to, with that 
inimitably expressive and truly interesting look, for which 
he was sometimes so remarkable: ‘ Young man you are a 
prophet ! inspired to speak what I am confident will one day 
be realized.' He then detailed to the company his impres- 
sions, that all North America would one day become united : 
he said that a Colonel Byrd,1 of Virginia, was the first man 
who had pointed out the best central seat [for the capital 
city] near to the present spot, or about the falls of the 
Potomac. General Washington further said that a Mr. 
Evans 2 had expressed the same opinion with many other 
gentlemen, who, from a cursory view of a chart of North 
America, received this natural and truly correct impression. 
The look of General Washington, the energy of his mind, 
his noble and irresistible eloquence, all conspired so far to 
impress the writer with these subjects, that if ever he should 
unfortunately become insane it will be from his anxiety for 
the federal city and national university."8 
In another part of the same book, Mr. Blodget describes 
1 Probably the third William Byrd [1728-1777], the son of the author of the 
“ Westover Papers.” He was Colonel of the Second Virginia Regiment in 
1756, and perhaps was in camp with Washington on the present site of the 
capital, when he became so deeply impressed with the eligibility of the site for 
a national city. 
* Perhaps Lewis Evans, the geographer, who in 1755 published a map of the 
central colonies, including Virginia. 
* “ Economica,” p. 22. 107] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
17 
a conversation with Washington, which took place after the 
site of the capital had been decided upon, in which the 
President “ stated his opinion that till there were 4 or 
5,000 inhabitants in the city of Washington and until 
Congress were comfortably accommodated, it might be 
premature to commence a seminary. . . . He did not wish 
to see the work commenced until the city was prepared for 
it, but he added that he hoped he had not omitted to take 
such measures as would at all events secure the entire object 
in time, even if its merits should not draw forth from every 
quarter the aid it would be proud to deserve,” alluding, of 
course, to the provisions in his own will. “ He then,” con- 
tinues Blodget, “ talked again and again on Mr. Turgot’s 
and Dr. Price’s calculations of the effect of compound inter- 
est, at which, as he was well versed in figures, he could 
acquit himself in a masterly manner.” 1 
Concerning the fate of the Potomac Company, a portion of 
whose stock was destined by Washington as a nucleus for 
the endowment of a university, it is not necessary now 
to speak. The value of the bequest was at the time placed 
at five thousand pounds sterling, and it was computed by 
Blodget, that had Congress kept faith with Washington, as 
well as did the Legislature of Virginia in regard to the 
endowment of Washington College, his donation at com- 
pound interest, would in twelve years (1815) have grown to 
$50,000 and in twenty-four (1827) years $100,000, an endow- 
ment sufficient to establish one of the colleges in the 
proposed university. 
Madison, when a member of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion in 1787, probably acting in harmony with the wishes of 
Washington, proposed as among the powers proper to be 
added to those of the General Legislature, the following: 
“ To establish a university. 
“ To encourage, by premiums and provisions, the advance- 
ment of useful knowledge, and the discussion of science.”' 
That he never lost his interest in the university idea is 
1 Id., App., p. ix. 
3 “ Madison Papers,” i., pp. 354 and 577. 18 
G. Brown Goode's Paper. 
[108 
shown by his vigorous appeal while President, in his message 
of December, 1810, in which he urged the importance of an 
institution at the capital which would “ contribute not less 
to strengthen the foundations than to adorn the structure of 
our system of government.” 
Quite in accord with the spirit of Madison’s message was 
a letter in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 1788,1 in which it was 
argued that the new form of government proposed by the 
framers of the Constitution could not succeed in a republic, 
unless the people were prepared for it by an education 
adapted to the new and peculiar situation of the country, 
the most essential instrument for which should be a federal 
university. Indeed the tone of this article, to which my at- 
tention has recently been directed by President Welling, was 
so harmonious with that of the previous and subsequent 
utterances of Madison, as to suggest the idea that he, at that 
time a resident of Philadelphia, may have been its author. 
It is more probable, however, that the writer was Benjamin 
Rush, who in 1787 issued an “ Address to the People of the 
United States,” 2 which began with the remark that there 
is nothing more common than to confound the terms of 
American Revolution with those of the late American war. 
“ The American war is over,” he said, “ but this is far from 
being the case with the American Revolution. On the 
contrary, nothing but the first act of the great drama is 
closed. It remains yet to establish and perfect our new 
forms of government; and to prepare the principles, morals, 
and manners of our citizens for these forms of government 
after they are established and brought to perfection.” 3 
And then he went on to propose a plan for a national 
university, of the broadest scope, with postgraduate scholar- 
ships, a corps of travelling correspondents, or fellows, in 
connection with the consular service, and an educated civil 
service, organized in connection with the university work. 
1 See Appendix A. 2 See Appendix B. 
8 The “Society of Sons of the American Revolution,” recently organized, 
and composed of descendants of Revolutionary soldiers and patriots, has for 
one of its objects, “ to carry out Washington’s injunction ‘ to promote as 
objects of primary importance institutions for the diffusion of knowledge ’ and 
thus to create an enlightened public opinion.” 109] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
19 
In “ Economica,” the work just quoted, printed in 1806, 
the first work on political economy written in America, 
Blodget referred to the national university project as an 
accepted idea, held in temporary abeyance by legislative 
delays. 
Blodget urged upon Congress various projects which he 
thought to be of national importance, and among the first 
of these was “To erect, or at least to point out the place 
for the statue of 1783, and either to direct or permit the 
colleges of the University formed by Washington to com- 
mence around this statue after the manner of the Timoleon- 
ton of Syracuse.” 1 
In intimate connection with his plan for a university 
was that of Washington for a military academy at West 
Point. He had found during the Revolution a great want 
of engineers, and this want caused Congress to accept the 
services of numerous French engineers to aid our country in 
its struggle for independence. 
At the close of the Revolution Washington lost no time 
in commending to Virginia the improvement of the Potomac 
and James rivers, the junction by canal of Chesapeake Bay 
and Albemarle Sound of North Carolina. He soon after 
proceeded to New York to see the plans of General Schuy- 
ler to unite the Mohawk with the waters of Lake Ontario, 
and to Massachusetts to see the plans of the Merrimac 
Navigation Company. 
It was the want of educated engineers for work of this 
kind that induced Generals Washington, Lee, and Hunting- 
ton, and Colonel Pickering, in the year 1783, to select West 
Point as a suitable site for a military academy, and at that 
1 1806 Blodget, Samuel, Jr. Economica : | A Statistical Manual | for the | 
United States of America. | = | The legislature ought to make 
the people happy | Aristotle on government | = | “ Felix qui 
potuit rerum cognoscere causas ” | = | City of Washington: | Printed for the 
author. | = | 1806, 128 i-viii, 1-202 i-xiv. 
The certificate of copyright is in this form : 
Be it remembered that Samuel Blodget Jr. hath deposited in this office 
the title of a book the right whereof he claims as author, but for the benefit in 
trust for the free education fund of the university founded by George Washing- 
ton in his last will," etc. 20 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[110 
place such an institution was essayed, under the law of Con- 
gress, in 1794. But from the destruction of the building, 
and its contained books and apparatus by fire, the Academy 
was suspended until the year 1801, when Mr. Jefferson 
renewed the action of the law, and in the following year, 
1802, a United States Corps of Engineers and Military Aca- 
demy was organized by law, and established at West Point, 
with General Jonathan Williams, the nephew of Franklin, 
and one of the vice-presidents of the Philosophical Society 
at its head, and the United States Military Philosophical 
Society was established with the whole engineer corps of 
the army for a nucleus. 
This society had for its object “ the collecting and dis- 
seminating of military science.” Its membership during the 
ten years of its existence included most of the leading men 
in the country, civilians as well as officers in the army and 
navy. Meetings were held in New York and Washington, 
as well as in West Point, and it seems to have been the first 
national scientific society.1 
The Patent Office also began under Washington, the first 
American patent system having been founded by act of 
Congress, April 10, 1790. 
On the 8th of January, 1790, President Washington 
entered the Senate chamber, where both Houses of Con- 
gress were assembled, and addressed them upon the state of 
the new nation. In the speech of a few minutes, which thus 
constituted the first annual message to Congress, about a 
third of the space was given to the promotion of intellectual 
objects—science, literature, and arts. The following expres- 
sion may perhaps be regarded as the practical origination of 
1 At least three fascicles of “ Extracts from the Minutes of the United States 
Military Society ” were printed—one for the stated meeting, Oct. 6, 1806 [4 °, 
14 pp.] ; one for an occasional meeting at Washington, Jan. 30, 1808 [4 °, pp. 
1-23 (1) ] ; and one for an occasional meeting at New York, Dec. 28, 1809 
(4 °, pp. 1-22]. The MS. Records, in four volumes, are said to be in the pos- 
session of the New York Historical Society. 
I am indebted to Col. John M. Wilson, U. S. A., Supt. of the Military 
Academy, and to Gen. J. C. Kelton, U. S. A., for courteous and valuable re- 
plies to my letters of inquiry. ill] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
21 
our patent system : “ I cannot forbear intimating to you the 
expediency of givdng effectual encouragement, as well to 
the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad, 
as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing them at 
home.” 
This of course was in direct pursuance of the constitu- 
tional enactment, bethought and inserted toward the 
closing days of the Convention in September, 1787, em- 
powering Congress with such authority. Each House, the 
Senate on the nth and the Representatives on the 12th, 
sent a cordial response to the President’s address, reciting 
the particulars of his discourse, and promising, especially to 
his suggestions for encouragement of science and arts, “ such 
early attention as their respective importance requires”; 
and the lower House proceeded rapidly with the work. 
January 15th it was resolved that the various measures indi- 
cated by the President should be referred to select commit- 
tees respectively; and on the 25th, such a committee was 
formed to consider the encouragement of the “ useful arts.” 
It consisted of Edamus Burke, of South Carolina, a Justice 
of the Supreme Court of that State, and native of Ire- 
land; Benjamin Huntington, of Connecticut; and Lambert 
Cadwalader, of New Jersey. On the 16th of February, Mr. 
Burke reported his bill, which passed to its second reading 
the following day. It was copiously discussed and amended 
in Committee of the Whole, particularly March 4th, when 
“the clause which gives a party a right to appeal to a jury 
from a decision of referees, it was moved should be struck 
out.” After a good deal of pointed and profitable remark 
as to the true sphere and function of juries, the motion for 
striking out was carried. 
The next day, March 5th, the bill was ordered to be 
engrossed, and on the 10th, after third reading, it passed, 
and was carried to the Senate. Here, in a few days, it was 
referred to a committee of which Charles Carroll, of Mary- 
land, was chairman, and reported back the 29th of March, 
where it passed, with twelve amendments, on the 30th. On 
the 8th of April it went forward with the signatures of 22 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[112 
Speaker and Vice-President to the President, who approved 
it April 10, 1790.1 The first patent was granted on the 31st 
of the following July, to Samuel Hopkins, of Vermont, for 
making “ pot and pearl ashes ” ; and two more during that 
year.® 
Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State at this period, under 
which department especially the patent system grew up for 
more than half its first century, took so keen an interest in 
its aim and workings, and gave such searching personal at- 
tention to the issue of the several patents, that he has been 
quite naturally reputed as the father of our Patent Office, 
and it seems to have been supposed that the bill itself 
creating it proceeded from his own suggestion. But by a 
comparison of dates this appears hardly possible. Jefferson 
returned from Europe to Norfolk and Monticello toward the 
end of 1789, his mind deeply occupied with the stirring 
movements of revolution abroad ; during the winter months 
he was debating whether he should accept the charge of the 
State Department offered him by Washington, making his 
way by slow stages from Virginia to New York, receiving 
innumerable ovations, paying his last visit to the dying 
Franklin, and he only reached the seat of government 
March 21st, when the legislative work on this act was practi- 
cally finished. More than to any other individual probably 
the American patent system looks for its origin to the 
Father of the Country.3 
Jefferson took great pride in it, and gave personal con- 
sideration to every application that was made for patents 
during the years between 1790 and 1793, while the power of 
revision and rejection granted by that act remained in force. 
It is a matter of tradition, handed down to us from genera- 
tion to generation, that, when an application for a patent 
was made, he would summon Mr. Henry Knox, of Massa- 
1 “ Statutes at Large,” vol. i., pp. 109-112. 
2 Among the treasures of the National Museum is a patent dated 1796, signed 
by Washington as President and Pickering as Secretary of State. 
3 The foregoing paragraphs concerning the history of the Patent Office were 
kindly supplied by Mr. Edward Farquhar, for many years its Assistant 
Librarian. 113] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
23 
chusetts, who was Secretary of War, and Mr. Edmund 
Randolph, of Virginia, who was Attorney-General, these 
officials being designated by the act, with the Secretary 
of State, a tribunal to examine and grant patents; and that 
these three distinguished officials would examine the appli- 
cation critically, scrutinizing each point of the specification 
and claims carefully and vigorously. The result of this 
examination was that, during the first year, a majority 
of the applications failed to pass the ordeal, and only 
three patents were granted. Every step in the issuing of a 
patent was taken with great care and caution, Mr. Jefferson 
thinking always to impress upon the minds of his officers 
and the public that it was a matter of no ordinary import- 
ance. 
The subsequent history of the office is very interesting, 
especially since it contains a record of Mr. Jefferson’s 
vigorous opposition to the change effected by the act 
of 1793, which he held, by a promiscuous granting of 
exclusive privileges, would lead to the creation of monop- 
oly in the arts and industries, and was against the theory 
of a popular government, and would be pernicious in its 
effects. 
In 1812 a building was put up for the accommodation of 
the office, but this was destroyed in 1836, and with it most 
of the records which would be necessary for a proper under- 
standing of the early history of American invention. 
In the Patent-Office building, and with it destroyed, there 
was gathered a collection of models, which was sometimes 
by courtesy called the “ American Museum of Art,” and 
which afforded a precedent for the larger collection of 
models and natural products, which remained -under the 
custody of the Commissioner of Patents until 1858, when it 
was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution, and became 
a part of the present National Museum. 
In 1836 the patent system was reorganized, and most of 
the methods at present in use were put in operation. As 
it now stands, it is one of the most perfect and effective 
in the world, and the Patent Office, judged by the charac- 24 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[114 
ter of the work it performs, although, perhaps, not strictly 
to be classed among the scientific institutions, is, neverthe- 
less, entitled to such a place by reason of its large and 
admirable corps of trained scientific experts serving on 
the staff of examiners.1 
The administration of John Adams, beginning in 1797, 
was short and turbulent. Political strife prevented him 
from making any impression upon our scientific history ; 
but it requires no research to discern the attitude of the 
man who founded the American Academy, and who drew 
up the articles for the encouragement of literature and 
science in the Constitution of Massachusetts. 
Jefferson, as Vice-President, taking little part in the affairs 
of the Administration, was at liberty to cultivate the sciences. 
When he came to Philadelphia to be inaugurated Vice- 
President, he brought with him a collection of the fossilized 
bones of some large quadruped, and the manuscript of a 
memoir upon them, which he read before the American 
Philosophical Society, of which he had been elected presi- 
dent the preceding year. 
“ The spectacle of an American Statesman, coming to 
take part as a central figure in the greatest political cere- 
mony of our country, and bringing with him an original 
contribution to science, is certainly,” as Luther has said, 
“ one we shall not soon see repeated.” * 
In 1801 began the administration most memorable in the 
history of American science. The President of the United 
States was, during the eight years of his office, President of 
1 See Official Gazette, U. S. Patent Office, vol. xii., No. 15, Tuesday, Oct. 
9, 1877 ; also articles in Appleton’s and Johnson’s Cyclopaedias. 
The history of the Patent Office has never been written ; a full account of 
its work, and of its influence upon the progress of American invention is 
greatly to be desired. 
.2 See Jefferson, “ A Memoir on the Discovery of Certain Bones of a Quad- 
ruped, of the Clawed Kind, in the Western Part of Virginia,” in the American 
Philosophical Transactions, IV., p. 246, (March 10, 1797); also F. B. Luther, 
“ Jefferson as a Naturalist,” in the Magazine of American History, March, 
1885, pp. 379-390. 115] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
25 
the American Philosophical Society as well, and was in 
touch with all the intellectual activities of the period. He 
wrote to a correspondent: “ Nature intended me for the 
tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme 
delight,” and to another he said: “Your first letter gives 
me information in the line of natural history, and the second 
promises political news; the first is my passion, the last is 
my duty, and therefore both desirable.” 
“At times of the fiercest party conflict,” says Luther, 
“when less happily constituted minds would scarcely 
have been able to attend to the routine duties of life, 
we find him yielding to that subtle native force which 
all through life was constantly drawing him away from 
politics to science.” 
Thus during these exciting weeks in February, 1801, 
when Congress was vainly trying to untangle the difficul- 
ties arising from the tie vote between Jefferson and Burr, 
when every politician at the capital was busy with schemes 
and counter-schemes, this man, whose political fate was bal- 
anced on a razor’s edge, was corresponding with Dr. Wistar 
in regard to some bones of the mammoth which he had just 
procured from Shawangunk in New York. Again, in 1808, 
when the excitement over the “ Embargo ” was highest, and 
when every day brought fresh denunciations of him and his 
policy, he was carrying on his geological studies in the 
White House itself. Under his direction upward of three 
hundred specimens of fossil bones had been brought from 
the famous Big Bone Lick and spread in one of the large 
unfinished rooms of the Presidential mansion. Dr. Wistar 
was asked to come to Philadelphia and select such as were 
needed to complete the collection of the Philosophical So- 
ciety. The exploration of the lick was made at the private 
expense of Jefferson through the agency of General William 
Clarke, the Western explorer, and this may fairly be regarded 
as the beginning of American governmental work in pale- 
ontology. 
His scientific tendencies led to much criticism, of which 
the well-known lines by William Cullen Bryant, in “ The Em- 26 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[116 
bargo,” afford a very mild example.1 He cast all calumny 
aside with the remark “ that he who had nothing to conceal 
from the press had nothing to fear from it,” and calmly 
went on his way. The senior members of his Cabinet were 
James Madison, a man of the most enlightened sympathy 
with science, and Gallatin, one of the earliest American phi- 
lologists; while one of his strongest supporters in Congress 
was Samuel Latham Mitchill, a mighty promoter of scien- 
tific interests in his native State, whom Adams wittily 
describes as “ chemist, botanist, naturalist, physician, and 
politician, who supported the Republican party because 
Jefferson was its leader, and Jefferson because he was a 
philosopher.” 
During this administration the project for a great national 
institution of learning was revived by Joel Barlow. In 
1800, when Barlow was the American Minister in Paris, he 
said in a letter to Senator Baldwin : “ I have been writing a 
long letter to Jefferson on quite another subject. It is 
about learned societies, universities, public instruction, and 
the advantages you and I have of doing something great 
and good if you will take it up on proper principles. If you 
will put me at the head of the institution, as I propose, and 
give it that support which you ought to do, you can’t ima- 
gine what a garden it would make of the United States. I 
have a great project, and only want the time and means to 
carry it into effect.” 2 
M. Dupont de Nemours was also corresponding with 
Jefferson upon the same subject, and his work, “ Sur l’Edu- 
cation Nationale dans les Etats Unis,” published in Paris in 
1800, was written at his request.3 
Barlow returned to the American States in 1805, and 
almost his first public act after his arrival, we are told, was 
1 ‘ * Go, wretch, resign the Presidential chair ; 
Disclose thy secret measures, foul or fair. 
Go, search with curious eyes for horned frogs 
’Mid the wild wastes of Louisianian bogs, 
Or where the Ohio rolls his turbid stream 
Dig for huge bones, thy glory and thy theme.” 
a Todd, “Life and Letters of Joel Barlow,” p. 208. 
3 Adams: “ Jefferson and the University of Virginia,” p. 49, et seq. 117] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
27 
to issue a prospectus in which he forcibly and eloquently de- 
picted the necessity and advantages of a National Scientific 
Institution. 
This was to consist of a central university at or near the 
seat of government, and, as far as might seem practicable or 
advisable, other universities, colleges, and schools of educa- 
tion, either in Washington or in other parts of the United 
States, together with printing-presses for the use of the 
Institution, laboratories, libraries, and apparatus for the 
sciences and the arts, and gardens for botany and agricultural 
experiments. 
The Institution was to encourage science by all means in 
its power, by correspondence, by premiums and by scholar- 
ships, and to publish school-books at cost of printing. 
The Military and Naval Academies, the Mint, and the 
Patent Office were to be connected with the university, and 
there was also to be a general depository of the results of 
scientific research and of the discoveries by voyages and 
travels, actually the equivalent of a national museum. 
“ In short,” wrote Barlow, “ no rudiment of knowledge 
should be below its attention, no height of improvement 
above its ambition, no corner of an empire beyond its 
vigilant activity for collecting and diffusing information.” 1 
The editor of the National Intelligencer, the organ of the 
administration in 1806, commented favorably upon the plan 
of Barlow. 
“ This gentleman,” wrote he, “whose mind has been enlarged by extensive 
observation, by contemplating man under almost every variety of aspect in 
which he appears, and whose sentiments have been characterized by an uni- 
formly zealous devotion to liberty, has most justly embraced the opinion that 
the duration as well as perfection of republicanism in this country will depend 
upon the prevalence of correct information, itself dependent upon the education 
of the great body of the people. Having raised himself, as we understand, to 
1 See text of prospectus in Appendix C to this paper, or in National 
Intelligencer, Washington, 1806, August 1st, and November 24th. The original 
publication, of which there is a copy in the Congressional Library, recently 
brought to my notice by Mr. Spofford, is a pamphlet, anonymously published, 
with the date of Washington, 24th January, 1806.— 
Prospectus | of a | National Institution, | to be | established | in the | United 
States j = | Washington City: | Printed by Samuel H. Smith | | 1806— 
8°, pp. 1-44. 28 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[118 
a state of pecuniary independence, he has returned to his native country, with 
a determination of devoting his whole attention and labors to those objects 
which are best calculated to improve its state of society, its science, literature, 
and education. The disinterested exertions of such a man merit the national 
attention.” 1 
Barlow’s prospectus, we are told, was circulated through- 
out the country, and met with so favorable a response that 
in 1806 he drew up a bill for the incorporation of the Insti- 
tution, which Mr. Logan, of Philadelphia, introduced in the 
Senate, which passed to a second reading, was referred to a 
committee which never reported, and so was lost. 
Barlow’s National Institution resembled more closely 
the House of Salomon in “The New Atlantis” of Bacon 
than it did the eminently practical university project of 
Washington. It would be interesting to know to what 
extent President Jefferson was in sympathy with Barlow. 
The mind which a few years later directed the organization 
of the University of Virginia, could scarcely have approved 
all the features of the Kalorama plan. He was undoubtedly 
at this time anxious that a national university should be 
founded, as is shown by his messages to Congress in 1806 
and 1808,3 though it is probable that he wished it to be 
erected in some convenient part of Virginia, rather than in 
the city of Washington. The project for transplanting to 
America the Faculty of the College of Geneva, which, but 
for the opposition of Washington, would probably have been 
attempted in 1794, had reference rather to the formation of 
a State University, national in influence, than to a central 
federal institution.3 
Although Barlow’s plan was, in its details, much too 
elaborate for the times, the fundamental ideas were exceed- 
ingly attractive, and led to very important and far-reaching 
results. 
Barlow expected, of course, that his Institution should be 
established and maintained at government cost. This was 
soon found to be impracticable, and those who were inter- 
1 National Intelligencer, Nov. 24, 1806. 
2 Henry Adams: “History of the United States,” 1805-1809, i., 346, 
347 ; ii., 365. 3 Adams : op. cit., pp. 45-6. 119] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
29 
ested in the intellectual advancement of the capital soon 
had recourse to the idea of beginning the work at private 
expense, relying upon government aid for its future 
advancement. 
Barlow’s classmate, Josiah Meigs, his friend and neighbor 
Thomas Law, aided by Edward Cutbush, Judge Cranch, and 
other citizens of Washington proceeded, forthwith, to at- 
tempt that which the politicians dared not. 
The essential features of Barlow’s plan were: 
1. The advancement of knowledge by associations of 
scientific men; and 
2. The dissemination of its rudiments by the instruction 
of youth.1 
To meet the first of these requirements they organized 
the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and 
Sciences, in 1819; and for the second, the Columbian Col- 
lege, incorporated in 1821. Most of the prominent mem- 
bers of the Columbian Institute were also among the friends 
and supporters of the college. Dr. Josiah Meigs, the friend 
and classmate of Barlow, the president of the institute from 
1819 to 1821, was an incorporator, and a member of the 
first faculty of the college.* 
Dr. Edward Cutbush, the founder of the Columbian In- 
stitute, was also a professor, as well as Dr. Thomas Sewall, 
Dr. Alexander McWilliams, and Judge William Cranch, 
and in publications made at the time these men distinctly 
proposed to realize the aspirations of Washington, for the 
creation of a great National University at the seat of the 
Federal Government. It was in this cause President Mon- 
roe gave to the Columbian College his public support as 
President of the United States. At a later day, when an 
hour of need overtook the college, John Quincy Adams 
became one of its saving benefactors.3 
1 “ The Old Bachelor,” by William Wirt, p. 186. 
2 I am indebted to Dr. James C. Welling, President of the Columbian Uni- 
versity, for much important information concerning this and other matter 
discussed in the present paper. 
3 James C. Welling: “The Columbian University," Washington, 1889, 
p. 1. 
The following letter, written by President Monroe in 1821, indicates that the 30 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[120 
The Columbian Institute was granted the use of rooms in 
the Capitol building under the present Congressional Library- 
Hall, which became a centre of the scientific and literary in- 
terests of Washington, and its annual meetings were held in 
the Hall of the House of Representatives, where Southard, 
Clay, Everett, Meigs and Adams delivered addresses upon 
matters of science and political economy to large assem- 
blages of public men. In 1819, Josiah Meigs, its president, 
writing to Dr. Daniel Drake, of Cincinnati, said: 
“ I have little doubt that this Congress will, before they 
rise, give the Institute a few acres of ground for our build- 
public men of the day were not unwilling that the institution should be 
regarded as one of national scope : 
Washington, March 28, 1821. 
Sir : 
1 avail myself of this mode of assuring you of my earnest desire that the 
College which was incorporated by an Act of Congress at the last session, by 
the title of “The Columbian College in the District of Columbia” may 
accomplish all the useful purposes for which it was established ; and I add, 
with great satisfaction, that there is good reason to believe that the hopes of 
those who have so patriotically contributed to advance it to its present stage 
will not be disappointed. 
Its commencement will be under circumstances very favorable to its success. 
The act of incorporation is well digested, looks to the proper objects, and 
grants the powers well adapted to their attainment. The establishment of 
the institution within the Federal District in the presence of Congress, and of 
all the departments of the government will secure to the young men who may 
be educated in it many important advantages, among which the opportunity 
which it will afford them of hearing the debates in Congress and in the 
Supreme Court, on important subjects, must be obvious to all. 
With these peculiar advantages, this institution, if it receives hereafter the 
proper encouragement, cannot fail to be eminently useful to the nation. 
Under this impression, I trust that such encouragement will not be withheld 
from it. 
I am, Sir, with great respect, 
Your very obedient servant, 
James Monroe. 
The donation of $25,000 made to the Columbian College in 1832 was pre- 
ceded by a report from the Committee in House of Representatives on District 
of Columbia. 
That report may be found in “ Reports of Committees, First Session, 22d 
Congress (1831-2),” vol. iii., Report No. 334. 
After reciting the early history of the college the report proceeds as follows : 
“Few institutions present as strong claims to the patronage of Government 
as that in behalf of which the forementioned memorial has been presented. 12l] , 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions 
31 
ing and for a Botanic Garden. Mr. Barlow made great 
efforts to obtain this object eight or ten years ago. He 
could do nothing—but prejudices which then were of the 
density of a thunder-cloud are now as tenuous as the tail of 
a comet.” 1 
On the ground granted by Congress, a botanical garden 
was, established by the Society, in 1822, or 1823, with the 
co-operation of the State Department and the consular 
service. In 1829 the Society applied to Congress for 
pecuniary aicf, which was not granted.’ 
(The Report is made in answer to a memorial of the President and Trustees 
of the College, asking Congress to make a donation to the College ‘ from 
the sale of public lots or from such other source as Congress may think 
proper to direct.’) Its location near the seat of Government, its salubrious 
middle climate, and other advantages, and the commendable efforts of 
the present trustees and professors to sustain it, justly entitle it to public 
beneficence. 
“ The supreme legislative power of the United States over persons and prop- 
erty within the District of Columbia is unquestioned. Congress has repeatedly 
made grants of portions of the public lands to seminaries of learning situated 
within the limits of States and Territories where such lands lie. The Consti- 
tution having thus confided to the care of the National Legislature the rights 
and interests of the District of Columbia, and Congress having made liberal 
donations out of the National domain to promote the great cause of education, 
in all the other districts within which the General Government has exclusive 
jurisdiction, it would seem to be cruel injustice to refuse the small boon now 
recommended. These considerations induce the hope that the proposed dona- 
tion will be exempt from all opposition not founded in doubts of the just 
claim to patronage of the institution for the benefit of which it is designed. 
And these claims, it is fully believed, will stand the test of the severest 
scrutiny.” 
The report from which the above extracts are taken was made February 27, 
1832 (to accompany House Bill, No. 422), by Mr. Thomas, of Maryland (on 
behalf of the Committee on the District of Columbia), in answer to memorial 
of the Trustees and the President of the Columbian College. 
1 “ Life of Josiah Meigs,” p. 102. 
2 The original members of the Columbian Institute were: Hon. John 
Quincy Adams; Colonel George Bomford, U.S.A. ; Dr. John A. Brereton, 
U. S. A. ; Dr. Edward Cutbush, U. S. N.; Asbury Dickins, Esq.; Joseph 
Gales, Jr., Esq.; Dr. Henry Huntt; Thomas Law, Esq.; Edmund Law, 
Esq.; Dr. George W. May; Alexander McWilliams, Esq.; William Winston 
Seaton, Esq.; Samuel H. Smith, Esq.; William Thornton, Esq.; Hon. Roger 
C. Weightman. 
Among the later members were Dr. Joseph Lovell, U. S. A.; Colonel Isaac 
Roberdeau ; Dr. Thomas Sewell; Judge William Cranch ; Hon. Henry Clay; 32 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[122 
The Columbian University was also an applicant for gov- 
ernment aid, which it received to the amount of $25,000 in 
1832, on the ground that it was an institution of national 
importance, organized by private individuals to do work 
legitimately within the domain of governmental responsi- 
bilities.1 
Hon. John McLean; Hon. Richard Rush; Hon. S. L. Southard; Hon. 
William Wirt; Dr. W. S. W. Ruschenberger, U. S. N.; Hon. J. M. Berrien ; 
Hon. J. C. Calhoun : Rev. Obadiah Brown; and Rev. William Staughton. 
The minutes of the Columbian Institute are not to be founcl. The treasurer’s 
book is in the National Museum. 
1 This appropriation was made on the strength of a report by Senator Bar- 
bour, of Virginia, Chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, in 
which, after alluding to the long recognized “ utility of a central literary estab- 
lishment ” and to the failures of the recommendations of Washington and 
Madison, he gave a brief history of the enterprise, which was as follows : 
“At length a few enterprising and patriotic individuals attempted to 
achieve by voluntary donations that which it had been supposed could be 
effected only by the power of Congress. 
“ Their efforts were crowned with distinguished success. One individual in 
particular, the Rev. Luther Rice, with an unwearied industry and an unyield- 
ing perseverance which prompted him to traverse every part of the Union in 
pursuit of aid to this beneficent object, contributed principally to that success. 
“ The funds thus acquired were faithfully and judiciously applied to this 
object . . . Application was made to Congress for an act of incorpora- 
tion, which passed February 9, 1821. This, however, was all the aid which 
Congress dispensed. 
“ The accompanying document shows that there have been expended in 
this institution $80,000, of which only $50,000 have been procured ; and as a 
consequence the institution is embarrassed by a debt to the amount of $30,000. 
. . . Under the circumstances the individuals who have thus generously 
devoted themselves to the promotion of this establishment, and who have dis- 
interestedly pledged their independence upon the success of the College, 
present themselves to Congress with a view to obtain their protection by a 
pecuniary grant. . . . 
“ The committee in reviewing the peculiar circumstances which characterize 
the origin of this establishment, its progress, and the great benefits it promises 
to society, are of the opinion that the application is reasonable. It cannot be 
doubted that had such an establishment grown up, under similar circumstances 
in either of the States it would receive the helping hand of its Legislature. 
Congress stands in the same relation to this establishment, from its exclusive 
power of legislation within the District, &c., &c.” 
Report of Mr. Barbour from the Committee on the District of Columbia to 
whom was referred the Memorial of the Trustees of the Columbian College.— 
April 19, 1824.—Senate.—18th Congress, 1st Session (67). 80-83 PP- 123] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
33 
The Columbian College received nearly one third of its 
original endowment from the government of the United 
States. Of the remainder perhaps one half was contributed 
by men like President Adams, whose sole interest in it was 
a patriotic one. 
During Jackson’s presidency all ideas of centralization, 
even in scientific matters, appear to have fallen into dis- 
favor, and the Columbian Institute and the Columbian 
College were forced to abandon their hopes for govern- 
mental aid. The Institute languished and dropped out of 
existence, while the College, under the fostering care of 
a church organization (which finally dropped it in 1846), 
and through the beneficence of individuals, one of whom, a 
citizen of Washington, gave it property to the value of 
$200,000, has grown to be a university in name and scope, 
and is included among the thirteen “ foundations comprising 
groups of related faculties, colleges, or schools,” enumerated 
in the report of the Commissioner of Education for 1886-7. 
Although it has not since 1832 made any claims for 
government aid, nor assumed to be in any way a ward 
of the nation, its early history is significant, on account 
of its connection with the project for a National University, 
which has been for more than a century before the people. 
The government has since established in Washington City 
the National Deaf-Mute College, which it still maintains, and 
the Howard University, intended primarily for the freedman, 
but open to all. 
The founders of the Columbian Institute and the Colum- 
bian University were building better than they knew, for 
they were not only advancing knowledge in their own day 
and generation, but they were educating public opinion 
for a great opportunity, which soon came in the form of 
a gift to the nation from beyond the sea, in the form of the 
Smithson bequest. 
The story of the Smithsonian Institution is a remarkable 
one. Smithson was a graduate of the University of Oxford, 
a Fellow of the Royal Society, a chemist and mineralogist of 34 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[124 
well recognized position. The friend and associate of many 
of the leading scientific men of England, he found it advisa- 
ble, for reasons connected with his family history, to pass 
most of his life upon the Continent. A man of ample 
fortune, he associated with men of similar tastes, and 
died in 1829, leaving in trust to the United States prop- 
erty now amounting in value to nearly three quarters of a 
million of dollars, to establish at the national capital “ an in- 
stitution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 
men.” No one has been able to explain why he did this. 
He had, so far as we know, no friend or correspondent in the 
United States, and had made known to no one his intention 
of establishing an institution of learning in the new world.1 
It is more than probable, however, that he knew Barlow 
when American Minister in Paris, and that the Prospectus 
of the National Institution, or the treatise by Dupont de 
Nemours, may have attracted his attention. He was aware of 
the failure of the attempts to obtain national support at the 
start for scientific uses, and conceived the idea of founding, 
with his own means, an organization which should, he fore- 
saw, grow into national importance. Any one who will take 
the pains to compare the criticisms and objections to Barlow’s 
project, as set forth in Wirt’s essay in “The Old Bachelor,”* 
with those which were urged in Congress and the public press 
in opposition to the acceptance of the Smithson bequest 
thirty years later, cannot fail to be greatly impressed by the 
similarity of tone and argument. 
The Smithsonian Institution, with its dependencies and 
affiliations, corresponds perhaps more closely at the present 
time to Barlow’s “ National Institution ” than any organiza- 
1 The only suggestion which has ever been offered is that by Mr. W. J. 
Rhees, in his history of “ James Smithson and his Bequest,” in which he calls 
attention to the fact that in the library of Smithson was a copy of “ Travels 
through North America,” published in 1807, by Isaac Weld, Secretary of the 
Royal Society, in which he describes the city of Washington, and refers to it 
prophetically as likely some time to become the intellectual and political centre 
of one of the greatest nations of the world. 
3 The Old Bachelor, Baltimore: F. Lucas, jun. small 8°, pp. 1-235 Page 
171- 125] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
35 
tion existing elsewhere in the world. The names of its three 
secretaries—Henry, the physicist (in office from 1846 to 1878); 
Baird, the naturalist (Assistant Secretary from 1850 to 1878; 
Secretary, 1878-1887); and Langley, the astronomer, suggest 
in a few words the main features of its history. 
Recurring to Jefferson’s Presidency, it should be noted 
that its most important scientific features were the inception 
of the system of scientific surveys of the public domain, and 
the organization of the Coast Survey. The first was most 
peculiarly Jefferson’s own, and was the outcome of more 
than twenty years of earnest endeavor. 
The apathy of the British government in colonial times 
in the matter of explorations of the American continent is 
inexplicable. Halley, the philosopher and mathematician, 
was in charge of a fruitless expedition in 1699; and Ellis, in 
1746, explored Hudson’s Bay under government auspices, 
searching for a northwest passage. 
The first inland exploring expedition under government 
auspices seems to have been that of Governor Spotswood, of 
Virginia, who in 1724, accompanied by a party of young 
colonists, made an excursion to the summit of the Blue 
Ridge for the purpose of ascertaining what lay beyond. 
Nothing else was done in colonial days, although it would 
appear that Jefferson, and doubtless others as well as he, 
had in mind the importance of exploring the great North- 
west. In the recently published life of Matthew Fontaine 
Maury, the story is told of his grandfather, the Rev. James 
Maury, an Episcopal clergyman and instructor of youth, in 
Walker Parish, Albemarle County, Virginia, who numbered 
among his pupils three boys who afterward became Presi- 
dents of the United States, and five signers of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. He was a quiet thinker—a serene 
old man who gave the week to contemplative thought and 
to his school, and Sunday to the service of the sanctuary. 
In 1756 he was already dazzled by the rising glory of the 
new country. He was intensely interested in the great 
Northwest. The Missouri was a myth at that time. Cox 36 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[126 
had ascended the Mississippi to the falls of St. Anthony, 
and reported the existence of such a stream, but all beyond 
was shrouded in mystery. 
“ ‘ But see,’ said the aged clergyman, pointing with trembling finger and 
eager eye to the map of the North American continent—‘see, there must be 
a large river in that direction ; mountains are there, and beyond them there 
must be a stream to correspond with the vast river on this side of the chain ’ ; 
and by a process of reasoning based on physical geography, he pointed out to 
his pupils (Thomas Jefferson among them), the existence of the line of the 
river as accurately as Le Verrier did the place of Neptune in the firmament, 
and predicted that a great highway to the West would some day be opened in 
this direction.” 1 
It would appear that Jefferson never forgot the sugges- 
tion of his venerable teacher. While Minister of the United 
States in Paris in 1785, he became acquainted with John 
Ledyard, of Connecticut, a man of genius, of some science, 
and of fearless courage and enterprise, who had accompanied 
Captain Cook on his voyage to the Pacific. “ I suggested 
to him,” writes Jefferson, “the enterprise of exploring the 
western part of our continent by passing through St. Peters- 
burg to Kamtschatka, and procuring a passage thence in 
some of the Russian vessels to Nootka Sound, whence he 
might make his way across the continent to the United 
States.1 He proceeded to within two hundred miles of 
Kamtchatka, and was there obliged to take up his winter 
quarters, and when preparing in the spring to resume his 
journey, he was arrested by an officer of the Empress of 
Russia, and carried back in a close carriage to Poland. 
“Thus,” says Jefferson, “ failed the first attempt to explore 
the western part of our northern continent.” 
In a letter to Bishop Madison, dated Paris, July 19, 1788, 
Jefferson tells the story of Ledyard’s failure, and of his 
departure on an expedition up the Nile. “ He promises me,” 
continues Jefferson, “if he escapes through his journey, he 
will go to Kentucky, and endeavor to penetrate westerly 
to the South Sea.” Ledyard died in Africa. 
1 “ Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury,” by Mrs. D. F. M. Corbin, London, 
1888, p. 6. 127] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
37 
The proposed expedition of Ledyard, though undertaken 
at the instance of the American Minister in Paris, can 
scarcely be regarded as a governmental effort. It is of 
interest, however, as leading up to the second attempt, 
which also was inspired and placed on foot by Jefferson. 
“ In 1792,” writes Jefferson, “ I proposed to the American 
Philosophical Society, that we should set on foot a sub- 
scription to engage some competent person to explore those 
regions in the opposite direction, that is, by ascending the 
Missouri, crossing the Stony Mountains, and descending the 
nearest river to the Pacific.1 
“ Captain Meriwether Lewis, being then stationed at 
Charlottesville on the recruiting service, warmly solicited me 
to obtain for him the execution of that object. I told him 
that it was proposed that the person engaged should be 
attended by a single companion only, to avoid exciting 
alarm among the Indians. This did not deter him ; but 
Mr. Andr6 Michaux, a professed botanist, author of the 
‘Flora Boreali-Americana,’ and of the ‘ Histoire des Chenes 
de l’Amerique,’ offering his services, they were accepted. He 
received his instructions, and when he had reached Ken- 
tucky in the prosecution of his journey, he was overtaken 
by an order from the Minister of France, then at Philadel- 
phia, to relinquish the expedition, and to pursue elsewhere 
the botanical inquiries on which he was employed by the 
government, and thus failed the second attempt to explore 
that region.” a 
1 Jefferson does not mention in this connection the well-known fact that he 
himself became personally responsible for raising the sum of one thousand 
guineas from private sources, to secure the sending out of this expedition. 
2 The late Dr. Asa Gray, in a letter written to me shortly before his death, 
remarks: “I have reason to think that Michaux suggested to Jefferson the 
expedition which the latter was active in sending over to the Pacific. I won- 
der if he put off Michaux for the sake of having it in American hands.” 
I think it is sufficiently evident from what has been written, that the pro- 
ject had been considered by Jefferson long before Michaux came into America. 
A statement parallel to that of Jefferson is found in the brief biography of 
Michaux prefixed by Prof. C. S. Sargent to his reprint of the Journal of 
Andre Michaux, published in the “ Proceedings of the American Philosophical 
Society,” vol. xxvi., No. 129, page 4 : “ The French Government was anxious 38 
G. Brown Goode's Paper. 
[128 
It is related by Jefferson, in his “ memoranda of conversa- 
tions,” that Judge Breckenridge, of Kentucky, told him, in 
1800, that Michaux was not only a botanical agent of the 
French, but a political emissary, and that he held a commis- 
sion as commissary for an expedition against the Spaniards, 
in 1785 to introduce into the Royal plantations the most valuable trees of 
eastern North America, and Michaux was selected for this undertaking. He 
was instructed to explore the territory of the United States, to gather seeds of 
trees, shrubs, and other plants, and to establish a nursery near New York for 
their reception, and afterwards to send them to France, where they were to be 
planted in the park of Rambouillet. He was directed also to send game-birds 
from America, with a view to their introduction into the plantations of Ameri- 
can trees. Michaux, accompanied by his son, then fifteen years old, arrived 
in New York in October, 1785. Here during two years he made his principal 
residence, establishing a nursery of which all trace has now disappeared, and 
making a number of short, botanical journeys into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
and Maryland. The fruits of these preliminary explorations, including 12 
boxes of seeds, 5,000 seedling trees, and a number of live partridges were sent 
to Paris at the end of the first year. 
“ Michaux’s first visit to South Carolina was made in September, 1787. He 
found Charleston a more suitable place for his nurseries, and made that city 
his headquarters during the rest of his stay in America. 
“ Michaux’s journeys in this country after his establishment in Charleston are 
detailed in the journal (printed in the place already referred to). They cover 
the territory of North America from Hudson’s Bay to the Indian River of 
Florida, and from the Bahama Islands to the banks of the Mississippi River. 
His ambition to carry out his instructions was equalled only by his courage and 
industry. The history of botanical explorations accords no greater display of 
fortitude and enthusiasm in pursuit of knowledge than Michaux showed in his 
journey to the headquarters of Savannah River in December, 1788, when his 
zeal was rewarded by the discovery of Shortia on the return from his visit to 
Hudson’s Bay. The hardship of his last journey even did not satisfy his 
craving for adventure and discovery, and shortly after his return he laid before 
the American Philosophical Society a proposition to explore the unknown 
region which lay beyond the Missouri. His proposition was well received. 
The sum of $5,000 was raised by subscription to meet the expenses of the 
journey, all arrangements were made, and he was about ready to start when 
he was called upon by the Minister of the French Republic, lately arrived in 
New York, to proceed to Kentucky to execute some business growing out 
of the relations between France and Spain with regard to the transfer of 
Louisiana.” 
“ It was this suggestion of Michaux, no doubt,” says Sargent in concluding 
this reference, “which led Mr. Jefferson, who had regarded him with great 
favor, to send a few years later the first trans-continental expedition to the 
shores of the Pacific.” Prof. Sargent, like Dr. Gray, has evidently not been 
in possession of the history of Jefferson’s early interest in this matter. 129] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
39 
planned by Genet in connection with a plot to gain posses- 
sion of the eastern Mississippi Valley for France.1 
“In 1803,” continues Jefferson, “ the act of establishing 
trading houses with the Indian tribes being about to expire, 
some modifications of it were recommended to Congress by 
a confidential message of January 18th, and an extension of 
its,views to the Indians on the Missouri. In order to prepare 
the way, the message proposed sending an exploring party 
to trace the Missouri to its source, to cross the highlands, 
and follow the best water-communication which offered 
itself from thence to the Pacific Ocean. Congress approved 
the proposition and voted a sum of money for carrying it 
into execution. Captain Lewis, who had then been near 
two years with me as private secretary, immediately renewed 
his solicitation to have the direction of the party.” 
In his life of Lewis, prefixed to the history of the 
expedition, Jefferson gives in full an account of Lewis’s 
preparation for the expedition, including his instruction in 
astronomical observation by Andrew Ellicott, and also a 
full text of the instructions, signed by him, addressed to 
Lewis and his associate, Captain William Clarke. Captain 
Lewis left Washington on the 5th of July, 1803, and 
proceeded to Pittsburg. Delays of preparation, difficul- 
ties of navigation down the Ohio, and other obstructions 
retarded his arrival at Cahoki until the season was so far 
advanced that he was obliged to wait until the ice should 
break up in the beginning of spring. His mission accom- 
plished, he returned to St. Louis on the 23d of September, 
1806. 
“ Never,” says Jefferson, “ did a similar event excite more joy through the 
United States. The humblest of its citizens had taken a lively interest in the 
issue of the journey, and looked forward with impatience for the information 
it would furnish. The anxiety, too, for the safety of the corps had been kept 
in a state of excitement by lugubrious rumors circulated from time to time on 
uncertain authorities, and uncontradicted by letters or other direct information, 
from the time they had left the Mandan towns on their ascent up the river, in 
April of the preceding year, 1805, until their actual return to St. Louis.” 
The second expedition towards the West was also sent out 
during Jefferson’s administration, being that under the com- 
1 “ Jefferson’s Writings,” ed. T. J. Randolph, iv., pp. 513, 514. 40 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[130 
mand of Gen. Zebulon M. Pike, who was sent to explore the 
sources of the Mississippi River and the western parts of 
“ Louisiana,” continuing as far west as Pike’s Peak, the name 
of which still remains as a memorial of this enterprise.1 
The expedition of Lewis and Clarke was followed, in due 
course and in rapid succession, by others, some geographical, 
some geological, some for special researches, and some more 
comprehensive in character. 
To those who are in the least degree familiar with the his- 
tory of American exploration, the names of Long, Cass and 
Schoolcraft, Bonneville, Nicollet, Fremont, Sitgreaves, Wizli- 
zenus, Foster and Whitney, Owen, Stansbury, Abert, Marcy, 
Stevens, Gunnison, Beckwith, Whipple, Williamson, Parke, 
Pope, Emory, Bartlett, Bryan, Magraw, Johnston, Campbell, 
Warren, Twining, Ives, Beale, Simpson, Lander, McClellan, 
Mullan, Raynolds, Heap, Jones, Ruffner, Ludlow, Maguire, 
Macomb, and Stone will bring up the memory of much ad- 
venturous exploration and a vast amount of good scientific 
work ; while to mention Hayden, Wheeler, King, and 
Powell is to leave the field of history and to call up the 
early stages of the development of that magnificent organi- 
zation, the United States Geological Survey, which is still 
in the beginning of its career of usefulness.2 
The history of the Coast Survey began with the earliest 
years of the century. It has been thought by some that the 
idea originated with Albert Gallatin, and by others that it 
was due to Prof. Robert Patterson,3 while Hassler, whose 
1 It is a matter of history that Alexander Wilson, the ornithologist, was anx- 
ious to be appointed the naturalist of Pike’s expedition, and Jefferson has 
been warmly abused for not gratifying his desire. It should be borne in mind 
that at this time Wilson was a man whose reputation had not yet been achieved 
and also that it is quite possible that, in those days, as in the present, the pro- 
jectors of such enterprises were often hindered by lack of financial opportunity. 
2 The U. S. Geological Survey was organized March 3, 1879, and Clarence 
King was appointed its first director. Major J. W. Powell, his successor, was 
appointed March 18, 1881. 
3 The committee of twenty, appointed in 1857 by the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, to report upon the history and progress of the 
Coast Survey, made the following statement: 
“ It is believed that the honor of first suggesting a geodetic survey of the Amer- 
ican coast, is due to the elder Professor Patterson, of Philadelphia, who, as 131] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
41 
name is so intimately associated with its early history, 
seems to have supposed that it was suggested by his own 
advent, in 1805, bringing with him from Switzerland a col- 
lection of mathematical books and instruments.1 
Passing by the question as to who was the originator of 
the idea, with the simple remark that it is doubtful whether 
such an enterprise should not have for long years been in 
the minds of many Americans, it may be said that, without 
doubt, the early organization of the survey was due to the 
scientific wisdom and political foresight of Jefferson, who 
realized that within a few years the country would be in- 
volved in a war with Great Britain, and that a thorough 
knowledge of the coast was essential not only to the pros- 
perity of the nation in time of peace, but still more to its 
safety in case of invasion. At that time the only charts 
available for our mariners were those in “ The Atlantic Nep- 
early as the year 1806, availed himself of his intimacy with the President, Mr. 
Jefferson, and the gentlemen who formed his Cabinet, to impress them with the 
feasibility and quality of the measure.”—“ Report on the History and Progress 
of the American Coast Survey up to the Year 1858, by the Committee of 
Twenty, Appointed by the Association for the Advancement of Science, at the 
Montreal Meeting, August, 1857 ” (pp. 1-88), p. 18. 
1 “ I arrived in this country in October, 1805, having relinquished my public 
station in my native country, Switzerland, foreseeing the turn of political 
events which have since come to pass, and from a taste for a rural life with 
completely different views and means quite sufficient for them, but which I 
have failed to claim. Having arrived in Philadelphia, the late Professor Pat- 
terson, Mr. Garnet, of New Brunswick, and several other gentlemen, on seeing 
the books, mathematical instruments, etc., I had brought with me for my private 
enjoyment, were so kind as to show me some attention. I had occasion to 
show them, in conversation, by the scientific publications of Europe, that I 
had been engaged in an extensive survey of Switzerland, which was interrupted 
by the revolution. Professor Patterson sent to President Jefferson, an account 
of my former life, which I furnished at his request ; and Mr. Clay, the 
Representative to Congress from Philadelphia, before setting off for Congress, 
in 1806, asked me if I should be willing to take a survey of the coast, to which 
I assented.” (Letter published in the New York American, probably in Feb- 
ruary, 1827. Principal Documents Relating to the Survey of the Coast of the 
United States since 1816, published by F. R. Hassler, Superintendent of the 
Survey. New York, William Van Norton, printer, 1834. Octavo, pp. 1-180, 
I—III: folding map. Second Volume of the Principal Documents Relating to 
the Survey of the Coast of the United States, from October, 1834, to November, 
1835. Published by F. R. Hassler, Superintendent of the Survey. New 
York, William Van Norton, printer, 1835. Octavo, pp. i-ip6, 1—111 (/).) 42 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[132 
tune ” of Colonel Des Barres, and the old hydrographic 
charts issued by the Dutch, French, and English govern- 
ments. Jefferson realized that American seamen were less 
familiar with many portions of their own coast than were the 
European navigators, and he appreciated fully the import- 
ance of having a knowledge of this kind far more accurate 
than that which was possessed by any foreigner. “ With 
the clear and bold perception which always distinguishes 
men of genius when they are trusted in times of danger with 
the destiny of nations, the President recommended the sur- 
vey of the home coast with all the aid of the more recent 
discoveries in science ” ; and in his annual message to Con- 
gress, in the year 1807, proposed the establishment of a 
national survey, for the purpose of making a complete 
chart of the coast with the adjacent shoals and soundings. 
In response to this recommendation, Congress made an 
appropriation of $50,000 for the purpose of carrying out the 
provision of the following law : 
AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR SURVEYING THE COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Be it enacted, drY. That the President of the United States shall be, and he 
is hereby authorized and requested to cause a survey to be taken of the coast 
of the United States, in which shall be designated the islands and shoals, in 
the roads or places of anchorage, within 20 leagues of any part of the shores 
of the United States ; and also their respective courses and distances between 
the principal capes, or head lands, together with such other matters as he may 
deem proper for completing an accurate chart of every part of the coast within 
the extent of foresaid. Act of Feb. 10, 1807. 
By the direction of the President, Albert Gallatin, Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, addressed a circular-letter to American 
men of science, requesting their opinion as to the character 
of the plan to be adopted. 
In the circular of the Secretary of the Treasury, the work 
to be performed was defined as consisting of three distinct 
parts, as follows: 
“ I. The ascertainment by a series of Astronomical observations of the 
position of a few remarkable points on the coast, and some of the Light- 
Houses placed on the principal capes, or at the entrance of the principal har- 
bors, appear to be the most eligible places for that purpose as being objects 133] 
National Scientific and Educational hist it ut ions. 
43 
particularly interesting to navigators, visible at a great distance, and generally 
erected on spots on which similar buildings will be continued so long as navi- 
gation exists.” 
“2. A trigometrical survey of the coast between these points of which the 
position shall have been astronomically ascertained ; in the execution of which 
survey, the position of every distinguishable permanent object should be care- 
fully designated ; and temporary beacons be erected at proper distances on 
those parts of the coast on which such objects are really to oe found.” 
“3. A nautical survey of the shoals and soundings of the coast of which 
the trigometrical survey of the coast itself, and the ascertained position of the 
Light-Houses, and other distinguishable objects, would be the basis; and which 
would therefore depend but little on any Astronomical observations made on 
board the vessels employed on the part of the work. ” 
This circular-letter was submitted to thirteen scientific 
men, and in response thirteen plans were received at the 
Treasury Department. A commission, composed of the ex- 
perts from whom answers had been received, was formed. 
They met at Professor Patterson’s, in Philadelphia, and the 
plan which they finally selected was then proposed by Ferdi- 
nand Rodolph Hassler, at that time, and for several years 
thereafter, Professor in the Military Academy at West Point. 
Nothing was done to secure definitely the execution of 
this plan until 1811, when Hassler was sent to Europe to 
procure the necessary instruments and standards of measure 
for the proposed work. He was detained as an alien in Lon- 
don during the entire war with England, and until 1815, 
when he returned to the United States, having, as a matter of 
course, far exceeded the limits of his appropriation, with a 
large claim against the government for indemnification.1 
1 An interesting reminiscence of his career in this period is contained in the 
diary of John Quincy Adams for July, 1815, when there is described an in- 
terview by himself, with Mr. Gallatin, at that time United States Minister in 
London, in which the latter spoke of Hassler, who had just left them. 
“That is a man of great ability. He was sent by the Government to Eng- 
land, to procure the instruments for the general survey of our coast, but he has 
outrun his time and his funds, and his instruments cost sterling more 
than was appropriated for them ; and he is embarrassed now about getting back 
to America. I have engaged the Messrs. Baring to advance the money for the 
instruments, and he is to go for his own expenses upon his own credit. He has 
procured an excellent set of instruments.”—Adams’s “ Memoirs,” iii., p. 248. 
The circulars elicited by Hassler’s plan are printed in the Transactions of 
the American Philosophical Society for 1812, vol. ii. 44 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[134 
I have been unable to ascertain the exact date of the 
appointment of Hassler, as the Superintendent of the Coast 
Survey, although it was thoroughly understood at the time 
of the acceptance of his plan in 1807, that it was to be 
carried out under his direction. 
It was not until August, 1816, that the contract was signed 
with the government which authorized Hassler to proceed 
with his work. In 1817 a beginning was made in the bay 
and harbor of New York, but Congress failed to provide for 
its continuance, and it was soon suspended, and in 1818, 
before the superintendent had the opportunity to publish a 
report upon the results of his last year’s labor, Congress, on 
the plea “ that the little progress hitherto made in the work 
had caused general dissatisfaction,” ordered its discontinu- 
ance by repealing the law under which the superintendent 
had been appointed, and providing that no one should be 
employed in the survey of the coast except officers of the 
army and navy. This was practically a discontinuance of 
the work, because there was no one in America but Hassler 
who was capable of directing it. 
Immediately after being thus legislated out of office, 
he was appointed one of the astronomers to represent 
the United States in the settlement of the Canadian 
boundary. 
From 1819 to 1832, attempts were made at various times 
by the Navy Department to survey several portions of the 
coast. A few detached surveys were made, but no general 
systematic work was attempted, and the result was not on 
the whole creditable. In 1828 the Honorable S. L. Southard 
of New Jersey, at that time Secretary of the Navy, in re- 
sponse to resolutions of inquiry from the House of Repre- 
sentatives, admitted that the charts produced by the navy 
were unreliable and unnecessarily expensive, and declaring 
also that the plan which had been employed was desultory 
and unproductive, recommended that the provisions of the 
law of 1807 should be resumed. 
In 1832, Congress passed an act reorganizing the surveys 
on the old plan. 135] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
45 
An act to carry into effect the act to provide for a survey of the coast of the 
United States. 
Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., that for carrying into effect the act entitled, 
“An act to provide for surveying the coast of the United States,” approved on 
the loth day of February, 1807, there shall be, and hereby is, appropriated a 
sum not exceeding $20,000, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not 
otherwise appropriated ; and the said act is hereby revised, and shall be to pro- 
vide for the survey of the coast of Florida, in the same manner as if the same 
had been named direct. 
Section 2. That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, au- 
thorized, in and about the execution of the said act, to use all maps, charts, in- 
struments, and apparatus which now, or hereafter may, belong to the United 
States, and employ all persons of the land and naval service of the United 
States, such as astronomers, and other persons as he shall think proper. 
Hassler was now again appointed Superintendent of the 
Coast Survey, and held his position until his death in 
1843, the work for a short time, at first, being assigned 
to the Treasury Department, and in 1834 transferred to 
the Navy Department, and in 1836 again re-transferred 
to the Treasury, where it has since remained, its status 
being finally definitely settled by act of Congress passed 
in 1843, shortly before the appointment of Alexander Dal- 
las Bache, as the successor of the first superintendent of 
the survey. 
At the time of Hassler’s death the survey had been 
extended from New York, where it was begun, eastward to 
Point Judith, and southward to Cape Henlopen. 
It should be mentioned that in 1825, during the period 
of the suspension of activity, Hassler presented to the 
American Philosophical Society a memoir on the subject 
of the survey, which contained a full account of the plan 
which he had adopted, a description of his instruments, 
and a history of what had been accomplished up to 1817. 
“This memoir,” wrote Professor Henry in 1845, “was 
received with much favor by competent judges abroad, 
and the commendation bestowed upon it was of no little 
importance in the wakening of sentiments of national 
pride, which had considerable influence in assisting the 
passage of the act authorizing the renewal of the survey 
in 1832.” 46 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[136 
With the appointment of Bache as Superintendent in 
1843, the survey entered upon a new period of prosperity, 
the discussion of which is not within the province of this 
paper, and it seems approprfate to close this notice of the 
origin and early history of the organization by quoting from 
the first report of his successor an estimate of the value of 
Hassler’s services. 
“ The Coast Survey,” wrote Bache, “ owes its present 
form and perhaps its existence to the zeal and scientific 
activity of the late Superintendent, who devoted the 
energy of his life to it; and who, but for its interruption 
at a period when he was in the prime of manhood, and 
its suspension for nearly fifteen years, might have seen 
its completion. The difficult task of creating resources 
of practical science for carrying on such a work upon a 
suitable scale, required no common zeal and perseverance 
for its accomplishment, especially at a time when our 
country was far from having attained its present position 
of scientific acquirement, and when public opinion was 
hardly sufficiently enlightened to see the full advantage 
of clearness in executing the work. For his successful 
struggle against great difficulties his adopted country will 
do honor to his memory as pioneer of a useful national 
undertaking.” 1 
The history of the Coast Survey under the successive 
superintendentships of Bache [1843-1867], Peirce [1867- 
1874], Patterson [1874-1881], and Hilgard [1881-1887], 
would make a volume in itself. Under its present direc- 
tor, Professor Mendenhall, it is growing into renewed vigor 
and efficiency. 
The Coast Survey was the last of the great scientific 
enterprises begun in Jefferson’s administration. If the 
“ Sage of Monticello ” were now living, what delight 
he would feel in the manifold scientific activities of 
the nation. The enlightened policy of our government 
in regard to scientific and educational institutions, is 
1 Report of Alexander Dallas Bache, Superintendent of the Coast Survey. I37] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
47 
doubtless to a considerable degree due to his abiding 
influence. 
“ Nowhere in all the long course of Mr. Jefferson’s great career,” writes 
Henry Adams, “ did he appear to better advantage than when, in his message 
of 1806, he held out to the country and the world that view of his ultimate 
hopes and aspirations for national development, which was, as he then trusted, 
to be his fast bequest to mankind. Having now reached the moment when he 
must formally announce to Congress that the great end of relieving the nation 
from debt was at length within reach, and with it the duty of establishing true 
republican government was fulfilled, he paused to ask what use was to be made 
of the splendid future thus displayed before them. Should they do away with 
the taxes ? Should they apply them to the building up of armies and navies ? 
Both relief from taxation and the means of defence might be sufficiently 
obtained without exhausting their resources, and still the great interests of 
humanity might be secured. These great interests were economical and 
moral; to supply the one, a system of internal improvement should be created 
commensurate with the magnitude of the country; ‘ by these operations new 
channels of communication will be opened between the States, the lines of 
separation will disappear, their interests will be identified, and their union 
cemented by new and indissoluble ties.’ To provide for the other, the higher 
education should be placed among the objects of public care ; ‘ a public insti- 
tution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet 
necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the im- 
provement of the country and some of them to its preservation.’ A national 
university and a national system of internal improvement were an essential 
part, and indeed the realization and fruit, of the republican theories which Mr. 
Jefferson and his associates put in practice as their ideal of government.” 1 
1 Adams’s “ Life of Gallatin,” pp. 349, 350. Henry Adams in this ad- 
mirable biography has shown that Gallatin was one of Jefferson’s strongest 
supporters in plans for the public enlightenment, and that he had an ambition 
of his own for the education of all citizens, without distinction of classes. 
“ I had another favorite object in view,” Gallatin writes, “ in which I have 
failed. My wish was to devote what may remain of life to the establishment, 
in this immense and fast-growing city (New York), of a general system of 
rational and practical education fitted for all and gratuitously opened to all. 
For it appeared to me impossible to preserve our democratic institutions and 
the right of universal suffrage unless we could raise the standard of general 
education and the mind of the laboring classes nearer to a level with those 
born under favorable circumstances. I became accordingly the president of 
the council of a new university, originally established on the most liberal 
principles. But finding that the object was no longer the same, and that their 
object, though laudable, was special and quite distinct from mine, I resigned 
at the end of one year rather than to struggle, probably in vain, for what was 
near unattainable.”—Op. cit., p. 648. 48 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[138 
Madison’s administration, which began in 1809, though 
friendly to science, was not characterized by any remarkable 
advances (except that the Coast Survey was actually 
organized for work under Hassler, after his return from 
Europe in 1816). The war of 1812 and the unsettled state 
of public affairs were not propitious to the growth of learned 
institutions. 
Monroe became chief magistrate in 1817. He, like Madi- 
son, was a friend and follower of Jefferson, and in the atmos- 
phere of national prosperity scientific work began to prosper, 
and there was a great accession of popular interest, and 
State geological surveys began to come into existence. 
Schoolcraft and Long led government expeditions into the 
West; the American Geological Society and the American 
Journal of Science were founded. 
The city of Washington began to have intellectual inter- 
ests, and public-spirited men organized the Columbian In- 
stitute and the Columbian University. 
Monroe was not actually acquainted with science, but was 
in hearty sympathy with it. When he visited New York, 
in 1817, he visited the New York Institution, and was 
received as an honorary member of the Literary and Philo- 
sophical Society, and in his reply to the address of Governor 
Clinton, its president, he remarked that “ the honor, glory, 
and prosperity of the country were intimately connected 
with its literature and science, and that the promotion of 
knowledge would always be an object of his attention and 
solicitude.” 
The most important new enterprise was in the direction 
of organizing a national meteorological service. 
The first move was made by Josiah Meigs, who was in 
1814 appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office. 
With the exception of Franklin,1 he was perhaps the earliest 
1 See Benjamin Franklin’s “ Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures,” 
in the Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Mansfield. 
Communications made at Passy (France), in 1784, and reported in the 
Pennsylvania Packet (in Congressional Library) of July 18, 1786. 139J 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
49 
scientific meteorologist in America, having, while living in 
the Bermudas from 1789 to 1794, made a series of observa- 
tions which he communicated to the Royal Society.1 
In 1817, or before he began to advocate Congressional 
action for the establishment of meteorological registers in 
connection with the Land Office, writing to Dr. Daniel Drake 
in 1817, he said : 
“If my plan be adopted, and the Registers be furnished with the requisite 
instruments for Temperature, Pressure, Rain, Wind, &c. ... we may, in the 
course of a year, know more than we shall be able to know on any other plan.” 
P. 82. “ Without some system of this kind our country may be occupied for 
ages, and we the people of the United States be as ignorant on this subject as 
the Kickapoos now are, who have occupied it forages past.” P. 83. 
In 1817 he also issued a circular to the Registrars of the 
Land Offices of the several States, calling upon them to take 
regularly certain observations and make monthly official 
reports upon all meteorological phenomena. 
In 1819 a co-operative movement was begun under the 
direction of Dr. Joseph Lovell, Surgeon-General of the 
Army, in connection with the medical officers at the principal 
military posts, by whom reports were made at the end of 
each month upon the temperature, pressure, and moisture of 
the air, the amount of rain, the direction and force of the 
wind, the appearance of the sky, and other phenomena. 
The Land-Office circular was a remarkable one, and led to 
the extensive system of Patent-Office observations, the 
results of which, published in connection with those of the 
War Department and the Smithsonian in 1859, formed 
the foundation of scientific meteorology in the United 
States. 
In 1839 a most admirable paper by the French geologist, 
I. N. Nicollet, an “ Essay on Meteorological Observations,” 
was published under the direction of the Bureau of Topo- 
graphical Engineering. Some years later the lake system of 
meteorological observations was established by the Engineer 
Department, under the direction of Captain (afterwards 
1 “ Life of Josiah Meigs,” p. 27. 50 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[140 
General) George G. Meade. This included a line of stations 
extending from the western part of Lake Superior to the 
eastern part of Lake Ontario. 
In 1835 a system of observations had been established under 
the direction of the Board of Regents of the University of 
the State of New York, the points of observation being at the 
academies of the State, and in 1837 the Legislature of Penn- 
sylvania made an appropriation of $4,000 for instruments for 
use in meteorological observations, which were continued 
until about 1847. Those of New York were kept up until 
1865 or later. 
In the meantime, the idea of the pre-announcement of 
storms by telegraph was suggested in 1847 by W. C. Red- 
field, the discoverer of the law of storms, while Lieutenant 
Maury from 1851 onward, and especially at the International 
Meteorological Conference (held at his instance in Belgium 
in 1853) was promoting the establishment of a system of 
agricultural meteorology for farmers, and of daily weather 
reports by telegraph.1 
In February, 1855, Leverrier obtained the sanction of the 
Emperor of France for the creation of an extensive organiza- 
tion for the purpose of distributing weather intelligence, 
though it was not till i860 that he felt justified in making 
his work international.2 In 1861 and in 1862 a similar 
organization was begun in England, under Admiral Fitzroy, 
which was extended a little later to India. 
In the meantime all the essential features for the predic- 
tion of meteorological phenomena were in existence in the 
Smithsonian Institution as early as 1856, having grown up 
as the result of an extensive series of tabulations of observa- 
tions recorded by volunteer observers in all parts of the 
country. 
The following historical notes on weather telegraphy, 
published by Professor Cleveland Abbe in 1871,3 give 
a summary of the progress of this work: 
1 “ Maury’s Life,” p. 77. 2 Scott, “ Storm Warnings,” London, 1883. 
3 American Journal of Science, July, 1871. 141 ] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
51 
However frequently the idea may have been suggested of utilizing our knowl- 
edge by the employment of the electric telegraph, it is to Professor Henry and 
his assistants in the Smithsonian Institution that the credit is due of having 
first actually realized this suggestion. 
The practical utilization of the results of scientific study is well known to 
have been in general greatly furthered by the labors of this noble institution, 
and from the very beginning Professor Henry has successfully advocated the 
feasibility of telegraphic storm warnings. The agitation of this subject in the 
United States during the years 1830-1855 maybe safely presumed to have stim- 
ulated the subsequent action of the European meteorologists. It will be interest- 
ing to trace the gradual realization of the earlier suggestions of Redfield and 
Loomis in the following extracts from the annual Smithsonian Reports of the 
respective years : 
1847. “ The extended lines of telegraph will furnish a ready means of warn- 
ing the more northern and eastern observers to be on the watch for the first 
appearance of an advancing storm.” 
1848. “Asa part of the system of meteorology, it is proposed to employ, as 
far as our funds will permit, the magnetic telegraph in the investigation of 
atmospherical phenomena. . . . The advantage to agriculture and com- 
merce to be derived from a knowledge of the approach of a storm by means of 
the telegraph has been frequently referred to of late in the public journals ; 
and this we think is a subject deserving the attention of the Government.” 
1849. “ Successful applications have been made to the presidents of a num- 
ber of telegraph lines to allow us at a certain period of the day the use of the 
wires for the transmission of meteorological intelligence. ... As soon as 
they [certain instructions, etc.] are completed, the transmission of observations 
will commence.” (It was contemplated to constitute the telegraph operators 
the observers.) 
1850. “ This map [an outline wall-map] is intended to be used for present- 
ing the successive phases of the sky over the whole country at different points 
of time, as far as reported.” 
1851. “ Since the date of the last report the system particularly intended to 
investigate the nature of American storms immediataly under the care of the 
institution, has been continued and improved.” 
The system of weather reports thus inaugurated continued in regular opera- 
tion until 1861, when the disturbed condition of the country rendered impossible 
its further continuance. Meanwhile, however, the study of these daily morning 
reports had led to such a knowledge of the progress of our storms that in the 
Report for 1857 Professor Henry writes: 
1857. “ We are indebted to the National Telegraph Line for a series of 
observations from New Orleans to New York and as far westward as Cincinnati, 
which have been published in the Evening Star of this city. 
“We hope in the course of another year to make such an arrangement with 
the telegraph lines as to be able to give warnings on the eastern coast of the 
approach of storms, since the investigations which have been made at the insti- 
tution fully indicate the fact that as a general rule the storms of our latitude 
pursue a definite course.” 52 
G. Broivn Goode s Paper. 
[142 
It would seem, therefore, that nothing but the disturbances of the late war 
prevented our having had, ten years ago, a valuable system of practical storm 
warnings. Even before peace had been proclaimed, Professor Henry sought to 
revive the systematic daily weather reports, and in August, 1864, at the meet- 
ing of the North American Telegraph Association (see their published report 
of proceeding) a paper was presented by Professor Baird, on behalf of the 
Smithsonian Institution, requesting the privilege of the use of the telegraph 
lines, and more especially in order to enable Professor Henry “ to resume and 
extend the weather bulletin, and to give warning of important atmospheric 
changes to our seaboard.” In response to this communication it was resolved, 
“ That this association recommend—to pass free of charge—brief meteorologi- 
cal reports for the use and benefit of the institution.” 
On the communication of this generous response preparations were at once 
made for the laborious undertaking, and the inauguration of the enterprise was 
fixed for the year 1865. In January of that year, however, occurred the disas- 
trous fire which so seriously embarrassed the labors of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion for several following years. It became necessary to indefinitely postpone 
this meteorological work, which, indeed, had through its whole history been 
carried on with most limited financial means, and was quite dependent upon 
the liberal co-operation of the different telegraph companies. 
It will thus be seen that without material aid from the government, but 
through the enlightened policy of the telegraph companies, and with the assist- 
ance of the munificent bequest of James Smithson. “ for the increase and 
diffusion of knowledge,” the Smithsonian Institution, first in the world, 
organized a comprehensive system of telegraphic meteorology, and has thus 
given, first to Europe and Asia, and now to the United States, the most 
beneficent national application of modern science, the storm warnings. 
In the Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1858 it 
is stated : 
“An object of much interest at the Smithsonian building is the daily exhibi- 
tion on a large map of the condition of the weather over a considerable portion 
of the United States. The reports are received about ten o’clock in the 
morning, and the changes are made on the map by temporarily attaching to 
the several stations pieces of card of different colors to note the different 
conditions of the weather, and the clearness, cloudiness, rain, or snow. This 
matter is not only of interest to visitors in exhibiting the kind of weather which 
their friends at a distance are experiencing, but is also of importance in deter- 
mining at a glance the probable changes which may soon be expected.”1 
In a still earlier report Professor Henry said: 
“We are indebted to the National Telegraph Line fora series of observations 
from New Orleans to New York, and as far westward as Cincinnati, Ohio, which 
1 “ 13th Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,” 
p. 32. (1858.) 143] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
53 
have been published in the Evening Star, of this city. These reports have 
excited much interest, and could they be extended further north and more 
generally to the west, they would furnish important observations as to the 
approach of storms. We hope in the course of another year to make such 
an arrangement with the telegraph lines as to be able to give warning on the 
eastern coast of the approach of storms, since the investigations which have 
been made at the Institution fully indicate the fact that, as a general rule, the 
storms of our latitude pursue a definite course.” 1 
In 1868, Cleveland Abbe, then director of the Cincinnati 
Observatory, revived the Smithsonian idea of meteorologi- 
cal forecasts, and suggested to the Cincinnati Chamber of 
Commerce that Cincinnati should be made the headquarters 
of meteorological observation for the United States, “ for 
the purpose of collecting and comparing telegraphic weather 
reports from all parts of the land and making deductions 
therefrom.” His proposals were favorably received, and he 
began, September 1, 1869, to issue the “ Weather Bulletin 
of the Cincinnati Observatory,” which he continued until, in 
January, 1871, he was summoned to Washington to assist in 
organizing the national meteorological service, with which 
he has ever since been identified. 
The Smithsonian meteorological system continued its 
functions until it was finally consigned to the custody of 
the chief signal officer of the army. Like all the efforts of 
this institution, this work was in the direction of supple- 
menting and harmonizing the work of all others, and atten- 
tion was especially devoted to preparing and distributing 
blank forms in this direction, calculating and publishing 
extensive papers for systematizing observations, introducing 
standard instruments, collecting all public documents, 
printed matter, and manuscript records bearing on the 
meteorology of the American continent, submitting these 
materials for scientific discussion, and publishing their 
results. The Smithsonian work was, during its whole ex- 
istence, under the immediate personal direction of Professor 
Henry, assisted by Professor Arnold Guyot, who, in 1850, 
1 “ 12th Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 
1857,” p, 26. Also, “ 20th Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution, 1855,” pp. 54-57. 54 
G. Brozvn Goode's Paper. 
[M4 
prepared and published an exhaustive series of directions 
for meteorological observations, intended for the first-class 
observers co-operating with the Smithsonian Institution. 
The seeds planted by the army in 1819 began to bear per- 
fect fruit fifty years later, when by act of Congress, in 1870, 
the Secretary of War was authorized to carry into effect a 
scheme for “ giving notice by telegraph and signals of the 
approach and force of storms,” and the organization of a 
meteorological bureau adequate to the investigation of 
American storms, and their pre-announcement along the 
northern lakes and the sea-coast was, under the auspices 
of the War Department, trusted to the chief signal officer 
of the army, Brigadier-General Albert J. Myer, and a divi- 
sion, created in his office, was designated as the “ Division 
of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce.” 
By a subsequent act of Congress, approved June 10, 1872, 
the Signal Service was charged with the duty of providing 
such stations, signals, and reports as might be found neces- 
sary for extending its research in the interest of agriculture 
In 1873, the work of the bureau of the division having been 
eminently successful, and its successes having been recog- 
nized abroad as well as in this country, Congress, by a 
further act, authorized the establishment of signal-service 
stations at the light-houses and life-saving stations on the 
lake sea-coasts, and made provision for connecting them 
with telegraph lines or cables, “ to be constructed, main- 
tained, and worked under the direction of a chief signal 
officer of the army, or the Secretary of War and the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury,” and in this year also was begun the 
publication of a Monthly Weather Review, summarizing in a 
popular way all its data showing the result of its investiga- 
tions, as well as presenting these in graphic weather charts. 
In 1874 the entire system of Smithsonian weather observa- 
tion in all parts of the United States was transferred by Pro- 
fessor Henry to the Signal Service. A few months previously, 
at the proposal of the chief signal officer, in the International 
Congress of Meteorologists convened at Vienna, the system 
of world-wide co-operative simultaneous weather observa- 145] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
55 
tions, since then so extensively developed, was inaugurated, 
and began to contribute its data to the signal-office records. 
It is unnecessary to trace further the history of the begin- 
ning of the meteorological work of the Signal Service, but I 
doubt not that every one at all familiar with its subsequent 
history, under the leadership of Generals Hazen and Greely, 
will agree with the opinion of Judge Daly, the president of 
the American Geographical Society, when he said that 
“ nothing in the nature of scientific investigation by the 
national government has proved so acceptable to the people, 
or has been so productive in so short a time of such im- 
portant results, as the establishment of the Signal-Service 
Bureau.” 1 
The sixth President, John Quincy Adams, a man of culture 
broad and deep, found the presidency of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences so congenial to his tastes 
and sympathies that he did not hesitate to say that he 
prized it more highly than the chief magistracy of the nation. 
He considered his most important achievement to be the 
“ Report on Weights and Measures,” prepared for Congress 
in 1818, and was justly proud of it, for it was a very ad- 
mirable piece of scientific work, and is still considered the 
most important treatise on the subject ever written. 
John Quincy Adams revived Washington’s national-uni- 
versity project, and made battle valiantly for an astronomical 
observatory. 
In his first message to Congress afterward, he said : 
“ Among the first, perhaps the very first, instrument for the improvement 
of the condition of men is knowledge ; and to the acquisition of much of the 
knowledge adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of human life, 
public institutions and seminaries of learning are essential. So convinced of 
this was the first of my predecessors in this office, now first in the memory, as 
living he was first in the hearts, of our country, that once and again, in his ad- 
dresses to the Congresses with whom he co-operated in the public service, he 
earnestly recommended the establishment of seminaries of learning, to prepare 
for all the emergencies of peace and war, a National University and a Military 
1 1S83, History of the United States Signal Service, with catalogue of its 
exhibit at the International Fisheries Exhibition. London, 1873 ; Washington 
City, 1883 ; octavo ; pp. 1-28. 56 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[146 
Academy. With respect to the latter, had he lived to the present day, in turn- 
ing his eyes to the Institution at West Point, he would have enjoyed the grati- 
fication of his most earnest wishes. But in surveying the city which has been 
honored with his name, he would have seen the spot of earth which he had des- 
tined and bequeathed to the use and benefit of his country as the site for a 
University, still bare and barren.” 1 
And again: 
“ Connected with the establishment of a university, or separate from it, might 
be undertaken the erection of an astronomical observatory, with provision for 
the support of an astronomer, to be in constant attendance of observance upon 
the phenomena of the heavens ; and for the periodical publications of his obser- 
vations. It is with no feeling of pride, as an American, that the remark may 
be made that, on the comparatively small territorial surface of Europe, there are 
existing upward of one hundred and thirty of these light-houses of the skies ; 
while throughout the whole American hemisphere there is but one. If we re- 
flect a moment upon the discoveries which, in the last four centuries, have been 
made in the physical constitution of the universe by the means of these build- 
ings, and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of their usefulness 
to every nation ? And while scarcely a year passed over our heads without 
bringing some new astronomical discovery to light, which we must fain receive 
1 John Quincy Adams, in his diary for November, 1825, describes an interview 
with his Cabinet, and the discussion which followed the reading of his message 
before it was finally revised for sending to Congress. 
“ Mr. Clay wished to have the recommendations of a National University 
. . . struck out . . . The University, Mr. Clay said, was entirely 
hopeless, and he thought there was something in the constitutional objection to 
it. ... I concurred entirely in the opinion that no projects absolutely 
impracticable ought to be recommended ; but I would look to a practicability 
of a longer reign than a simple session of Congress. General Washington had 
recommended the Military Academy more than ten years before it was ob- 
tained. The plant may come late, though the seed should be sown early. 
And I had not recommended a University. I hau referred to Washington’s 
recommendations, and observed they had not been carried into effect.” 
Such opinions as these of Mr. Clay were evidently very much at variance 
with those of John Quincy Adams and of his illustrious father, whose action in 
the constitutional convention of Massachusetts has already been referred to, 
and at variance as well, it would seem, with the opinion of the early Republi- 
cans, as with those of the Federalists. The views of Washington and Madison, 
as well as those of Jefferson and Barlow, on these subjects have already been 
referred to. 
Mr. Adams, in commenting upon an address delivered by Edward Everett 
before the Columbian Institute, January 16, 1830, remarks : 
“ I regretted to hear a seeming admission that the powers of giving encour- 
agement to literature and science were greater at least in State governments 
than in that of the Union.” Vol. vii., p. 171. 147] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
57 
at second-hand from Europe, are we not cutting ourselves off from the means of 
returning light for light, while we have neither observatory nor observer upon 
our half of the globe, and the earth revolves in perpetual darkness to our 
unsearching eyes ? ” 
This appeal was received with shouts of ridicule; and the 
proposal “ to establish a light-house in the skies ” became a 
common by-word which has scarcely yet ceased to be famil- 
iar. So strong was public feeling that, in the year 1832, in 
reviving an act for the continuance of the survey of the coast, 
Congress made a proviso, that “ nothing in the act should be 
construed to authorize the construction or maintenance of a 
permanent astronomical observatory.” 
Nothing daunted, Mr. Adams contined the struggle, and 
while a member of the House of Representatives, after his 
presidential term had expired, he battled for the observatory 
continually and furiously. An oration delivered by him in 
Cincinnati, in 1843, closed with these words: 
“ Is there one tower erected to enable the keen-eyed observer of the heavenly 
vault to watch from night to night, through the circling year, the movements 
of the starry heavens and their unnumbered worlds ? Look around you, look 
from the St. John to the Sabine, look from the mouth of the Neversink to 
the mouth of the Columbia, and you will find not one ! or if one, not of our 
erection.’’ 
A correspondent of the London Athenceum, writing from 
Boston in May, 1840, spoke at length of the dearth of obser- 
vatories in the United States, and of the efforts of John 
Quincy Adams to form a national astronomical establish- 
ment in connection with the Smithson bequest. The letter 
is of great interest as showing the state of opinion on scien- 
tific matters in America just half a century ago. 
One of the prominent subjects of discussion among our savans is the estab- 
lishment of Observatories of a character suitable to our standing as a civilized 
nation, and still more to our exigencies as a practical, and especially as a com- 
mercial community. I verily believe that the yearly damage and destruction 
along our coast, for want of the securities which such institutions would supply, 
out-balances, beyond comparison, all it would cost to establish and maintain 
them in every principal city of the land. It is partly a sort of electioneering 
economy which leaves things thus, and which has hitherto refused or neglected 
Boston, May, 1840. 58 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[148 
to fit out Exploring Expeditions; to accumulate national treasures of art and 
science, and facilities for their prosecution ; and generally to pursue a system of 
“ in-breeding and cherishing,” as Milton has it, “ in a great people, the seeds of 
virtue and public civility ” ; excepting always what is done for the diffusion of 
elementary popular education. This education, to be sure, and this diffusion of 
it, we are taught to regard as necessaries in our moral and social being—the 
“ staff of public life ” among us. And we are right. It is so. But there are 
many other things which we have not been taught to appreciate as they deserve, 
and the value of which we have gradually to grope our way to. Their day, 
however, will come : though it cannot be expected that either a government or 
a people so youthful, so hurried, so fluctuating, can reach at once to the graces 
and the “fair humanities” of the old world. Remember that the “United 
States” are only some half-century old ; and remember what we have been 
obliged to do and to suffer meanwhile, and under what circumstances. But, as 
I said before, the time is coming, if not come, when the heart of the nation 
shall acknowledge what is the high duty and destiny of a country like this; and 
then, I need not tell you, all is accomplished. Congress and the government 
must always represent the general as well as the political character of the na- 
tion. It will be refined, scientific, public-spirited, or otherwise, as are the peo- 
ple. At this moment, as at all times, the representative and the represented, 
bear this relation to each other as intimately as might be expected from the 
nature of our institutions; and hence, from the signs which have appeared in 
the legislative bodies, I derive hope, and feel authorized to say what I have said 
of the advance, throughout our community, of what may be called the graceful 
and genial system of civilization, as distinguished from the practical and hard. 
This subject of observatories is quite in point. True, nothing has yet been 
done, but then a good deal has been said ; and that is much : it is, in fact, do- 
ing much, in a case like this. It was something for Congress to bear being told 
what they had neglected, and patiently to discuss the subject. 
The principal agent in bringing the subject forward has been Ex-President 
Adams, who, as you may be aware, is still an M.C., at the age of between sev- 
enty and eighty, and one of the halest and hardiest men in that body. His spirit 
is equal to his iron constitution. He spares himself no labour. So well is this 
understood, that it has been of late rather a practice to select the old gentleman 
for special burthens ; and there are many matters of legislative action, which he 
really understands better, or knows better at least how to explore and determine, 
than any member of the House. Thus the Observatory business came upon 
him, at least indirectly ; for, to some extent, he brought it on himself. You 
are, no doubt, familiar with the history of the great Smithsonian Bequest. 
When that business.came before Congress, and especially as it was not a party 
one, all eyes were turned on Mr. Adams, and he was appointed Chairman of 
the Committee. In this capacity he has made sundry Reports ; the last and 
ablest reviews the whole subject. In this he labours to show what general ap- 
propriation ought to be made of the fund—for that is not yet determined—and 
then to sustain a special recommendation, which is, to devote the income for 
about ten years to an Observatory, to be founded on national land, at Washing- 
ton, * ‘ adapted to the most effective and continual observations of the phenomena 149] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
59 
of the heavens, and to be provided with the necessary, best, and most perfect 
instruments and books for the periodical publication of the said observations, 
and for the annual composition and publication of a Nautical Almanac.” The 
details of the plan may be omitted. Many, however, of the statistics connected 
with them, are new to us here, and of interest, including a Report on the Brit- 
ish establishments, furnished, on request, by the Astronomer Airy. To a greater 
extent these may be familiar to English readers, but perhaps not wholly so. I 
hope they do not know, for example, how much we observe, as compared with 
other nations, the caustic strictures and lectures of Mr. Adams, who really gives 
us no quarter, being resolved not to spoil the child by sparing the rod, but 
rather to provoke us to find a remedy for the evils he describes. You yourself 
adverted, not long since, to the state of things among us, but only in general 
terms. The facts are these : They have a small observatory in process of erec- 
tion at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for the use of the university in that place. Pro- 
fessor Hopkins, of Williams College, Massachusetts, has a little establishment 
of the sort, and this is about all in that state,—all in New England! The only 
other establishment in the United States, known to me, is that in the Western 
Reserve College, Ohio, under the charge of Professor Loomis. Nothing of the 
kind at our national seat of government, or anywhere near it ! Even Harvard 
University, “ with all its antiquity, revenue, science, and renown,” has thus far 
failed, though it appears that they are breaking ground at Cambridge ; a house 
or houses having been purchased and fitted up, and one of our “ savans ” is 
already engaged in a series of magnetic and other observations. Now, how 
stands the case on your side the water ? Why, in the British Islands alone, 
there are observatories at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford—at Edin- 
burgh and Glasgow, in Scotland—and at Dublin and Armagh, in Ireland—all 
receiving some patronage from the government—to say nothing of an observa- 
tory at the Cape of Good Hope ; or of the establishments on the various remote 
and widely separated dependencies of the British empire, including Van Die- 
men’s Land, for the furnishing of which, we understand arrangements have 
been made, in connection with Captain Ross’s expedition. In France, I believe, 
the provision is not less ample. On this part of the subject Mr. Adams merely 
remarks, that the history of the Royal Observatory of that country would show 
the benefits conferred on mankind by the slightest notice bestowed on the rulers 
on the pursuit of knowledge : and that ‘ ‘ the names of the four Cassinis would 
range in honorable distinction by the side of Flamsteed, Bradley, and Mas- 
kelyne.” 
Special reference is of course made to Greenwich, and Mr. Adams takes 
much pains to show how much that institution has done for science and for 
man. After recapitulating how to preserving observations we are indebted for 
a fixed standard for the measurement of time,—how, by the same science, man 
has acquired, so far as he possesses it, a standard for the measurement of space, 
he observes, that the minutest of these observations contribute to the “ increase 
and diffusion of knowledge ” (the expressed object in Smithson’s bequest). As 
to the more brilliant, we are reminded of an observation of Voltaire, that if the 
whole human race could be assembled from the creation of man to this time, in 
gradation of genius, Isaac Newton would stand at their head ; and the discov- 60 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[150 
eries of Newton were the results of calculations, founded on the observations of 
others—of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Flamsteed. Greenwich has 
been considered rather an expensive establishment (among us), but Mr. Adams 
shows that, though costly, it has not been profitless. 
Not to enter further into details of European countries, it appears that there 
are about one hundred and twenty observatories in Continental Europe ; and 
that the most magnificent of them all has been lately founded by the Czar in the 
vicinity of his capital: an enterprise sufficiently glorious, Mr. Adams observes, 
for the sovereign of such an empire ; but the merit of which is enhanced by the 
fact of its being undertaken and accomplished in such a latitude and climate :— 
“a region so near the pole, that it offers to the inspection of the human eye 
only a scanty portion of the northern hemisphere, with an atmosphere so chilled 
with cold and obscured with vapors, that it yields scarcely sixty days in the year 
when observation of the heavenly bodies is practicable.” This fact, it must be 
allowed, is rather an aggravation, or ought to be, to us republicans, some 
among whom affect to be special despisers of the bigoted Nicholas, and all his 
works. It seems, too, that Mehemet Ali has come forward as the patron of 
philosophical inquiry. 
Thus matters stand at present, and Mr. Adams strongly urges prompt, prac- 
tical action ; and this scheme, with some modifications, and after our customary 
delays and discussions (in Congress) will be carried into execution, at least to a 
respectable extent. I am the more inclined to the opinion as it has been made 
clear in the progress of discussion that the establishments referred to need not 
be so enormously expensive as they generally are. In this matter we have 
been misled and discouraged by your example, among others. We found that 
Cambridge Observatory cost and that, among the instruments, the 
price of the mural circle alone was over to say nothing of an equatorial 
telescope at 7$o£, or a transit instrument boo£, and that as to Greenwich, the 
annual expenses, including salaries, repairs, and printing, exceeded 
Now, this may be “ sport for you,” but itknocked our calculations on thehead. 
Our ideas are not yet enlarged to that extreme point. To be sure, we can 
spend money for Florida wars ; nay, for better things—for internal improve- 
ments—for bridges over the Ohio River (St. Louis), or for market-houses and 
meeting-houses of most liberal dimensions—for whatever, in a word, is practi- 
cal—as we understand it—and especially so much of it as private enterprise can 
execute without calling in government aid:—but ask for the adornments and muni- 
ments of art and science, in the ornamental or even in the scholar-like way, and 
it must be acknowledged the “ sovereign people ” move slow ; they button their 
breeches’ pockets and begin to “ calculate.” As to the Observatories, however, 
the case is better, for we find that much can be done at small expense. An 
establishment of the merely useful kind, may be set up for a trifle. Not that 
Mr. Adams proposes to establish the National Observatory on such a scale. On 
the contrary, he thinks the Smithson fund should be devoted to it for the pres- 
ent, and that not less than ten years of the income will be required. A more 
explicit estimate is also added, but it will be sufficient to observe that it com- 
prises, besides a salary of $3,600 for the astronomer, funds for the compensa- 
tion of four assistants, at $1,500 each, and two laborers, each at $600 ; for the 151] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
61 
purchase and procurement of instruments, $30,000 ; of which $20,000 might be 
applied for an assortment of the best instruments to be procured, and $10,000 
for a fund, from the interest of which other instruments may be from time 
to time procured, and for repairs ; for the library, $30,000 ; being $10,000 
for first supply, and $20,000 for a fund for an income of $12,000 a year ; and 
finally $30,000 for a fund, from the income of which $1,800 a year, shall go to 
defray the expenses of the yearly publication of the observation and of a Nau- 
tical Almanac. 
It was the idea of Mr. Adams, in his later days, that the 
Smithson bequest, or, at least, its income for ten years, 
should be applied to the foundation of a national observa- 
tory and the publication of the “ Nautical Almanac,” and 
he only abandoned it when an observatory had actually 
been established under the Navy Department, in connection 
with the Department of Charts and Instruments. 
The establishment of an observatory had, indeed, been 
prominent in the minds of Washington and Jefferson, and 
was definitely proposed in Barlow’s plan for a national insti- 
tution, as well as in the project for a coast survey, submitted 
in 1837, in which it was proposed that there should be two 
observatories, formed at a fixed point, around which the 
survey, and particularly the nautical part of it, should be 
referred, their situation preferably to be in the State of 
Maine or Lower Louisiana, since from them every celestial 
object observable, from the tropics to the arctic circle, and 
within about twenty degrees of longitude, could be observed. 
Still, however, since various considerations might occasion 
the desire of placing one of these observatories in the city 
of Washington, just as observatories had been placed in the 
principal capitals of Europe, as a national object of scientific 
ornament as well as a means for nourishing science in 
general, Hassler conceded that it might there be placed, 
since it would then be the proper place for the deposit of 
the standards of weights and measures, which also makes a 
special part the collection of instruments. James Monroe, 
when Secretary of State in 1812, strongly urged upon Con- 
gress the establishment of an observatory, urging, first, the 
necessity of establishing a first meridian for the continent, 
and, in the second place, the fact that every enlightened 62 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[152 
nation had already established such an institution of learn- 
ing. The immediate occasion for the intervention of the 
Secretary of State was the memorial of William Lambert, 
of Virginia, which was presented at various times from 1810 
to 1821, and was accompanied by an elaborate report in 
1822. 
The action of Congress during the Adams administration 
has been referred to. In 1830, Mr. Vance of North Caro- 
lina, Secretary of the Navy under Jackson, strongly urged 
the establishment of an observatory for general astronomical 
purposes. 
The beginning of the observatory seems to have bern 
actually made on Capitol Hill during Mr. Adams’s adminis- 
tration, under instruction of Astronomers Lambert and 
Elliott, employed by Congress to determine the longitude 
of Washington. The President, in his diary of 1825, de- 
scribed a visit to Capitol Hill, in company with Colonel 
Roberdeau, and spoke of witnessing an observation of the 
passage of the sun over the meridian, made with a small 
transit instrument. This instrument was very probably the 
one obtained by Hassler in Europe in 1815, which he 
never was permitted to use in connection with the coast 
survey work, and which passed into the hands of Lieutenant 
Wilkes in 1834, when it was placed in the small observatory, 
erected at his own expense, about a thousand feet north of 
the dome of the Capitol. 
It was at this establishment, which was known as the “ naval 
depot of instruments,” that the five-foot transit was used, 
mainly for the purpose of reading the naval chronometer. 
When Wilkes went to sea with his expedition in 1837, Lieu- 
tenant James M. Gilliss became superintendent of the depot, 
and having obtained a 42-inch astronomical telescope, com- 
menced a series of observations on the culmination of the 
moon and stars. In 1842 the establishment of a permanent 
depot of charts and instruments was authorized by Con- 
gress, and although the establishment of an observatory was 
not authorized in the bill, every effort was made by Lieu- 
tenant Gilliss and others interested in his work to secure 153] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
63 
suitable accommodations for astronomical work, and his 
plans having been approved by President Tyler, work was 
begun on the Naval Observatory, now known as the National 
Observatory. 
There can be little doubt that the excellence of the work 
done by Gilliss himself, with his limited opportunities, did 
much to hasten the establishment of the observatory, and 
there is in this connection a traditional history. Encke’s 
Comet appeared in 1842, and was promptly observed by 
him. He read a paper concerning it before the National 
Institute. Senator Preston, an enthusiastic member of that 
organization, was present at the meeting. When Gilliss, still 
a very young man, shortly afterward made a visit to the 
Senate Committee-room, the Senator remarked to him : 
“ If you are the one who gave us notice of the comet, I 
will do all that I can to help you.” 
A week afterwards a bill passed the Senate and the House 
without formal discussion. The appropriation was twenty- 
five thousand dollars, and although it was expressly for the 
establishment of a depot of charts and instruments, the 
report of the committee which had secured it was so em- 
phatically in favor of astronomical, meteorological, and mag- 
netic work that the Secretary of the Navy felt justified in 
assuming that Congress had sanctioned the broadest project 
for an observatory. Gilliss was at once sent abroad to obtain 
instruments and plans, while Lieutenant Matthew F. Maury 
was placed in charge of the depot, and when the observatory 
was completed in 1844 became its superintendent. 
Maury’s attitude towards astronomical work has been 
severely criticised, and, I think, misunderstood. He was, 
first of all, an enthusiastic officer of the navy; second, an 
astronomer, and he deemed it appropriate that the chief 
efiort of the office should be directed toward work which had 
a direct professional bearing. Although not neglecting 
astronomy, (for under his direction two volumes of astro- 
nomical observations were published) his own attention, and 
oftentimes that of almost the entire office, was devoted to 
hydrographic subjects. The work which he had accom- 64 
G. Brozvn Goode s Paper. 
[154 
plished was of the greatest practical importance to naviga- 
tion, and nothing of a scientific nature up to that time 
accomplished in America received such universal attention 
and praise from abroad. 
His personal popularity and his influence were very great, 
and the necessity for the maintenance of a national observa- 
tory was not in his day fully appreciated by the public. It 
is not at all impossible that, indirectly, through his meteoro- 
logical and hydrographic work, he may have done more for 
the ultimate and permanent welfare of the National Observa- 
tory than could have been possible through exclusive atten- 
tion to work of a purely astronomical character. 
In 1861 Gilliss again became the superintendent, and under 
his direction the Observatory took rank among the first in 
the world. 
Before leaving the subject of the Observatory, reference 
should be made to astronomical work almost national in 
character accomplished in colonial days at Philadelphia 
under the direction of the American Philosophical Society, 
by which a committee of thirteen was appointed to make 
observations upon the Transit of Venus in 1769. 
Three temporary observatories were built, one in Philadel- 
phia, one at Norristown, and one at Cape Henlopen. Instru- 
ments were imported from England, one of them a reflecting 
telescope with a Dollond micrometer, purchased in London 
by Dr. Franklin with money voted by the Assembly of Penn- 
sylvania. The transit was successfully observed and an 
elaborate report was published. 
This enterprise is worthy of mention, because it was the first 
serious astronomical work ever undertaken in this country. 
Being under the auspices of the only scientific society then in 
existence it was in some sense a national effort. Had not the 
Revolution taken place, it would undoubtedly have resulted 
in the establishment of a well equipped observatory in this 
country under the auspices of the home government. Dr. 
Thomas Ewing, the Provost of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, who seems to have been the first to propose the 
observations of 1769, and under whose direction they were 155] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
65 
carried on, visited London a few years later, and while there 
made interest with Lord North, the Prime-Minister, and with 
Mr. Maskelyne, the Astronomer-Royal, for the establish- 
ment of an observatory in Philadelphia, and that his efforts 
gave great promise of success may be shown by the letter 
here presented, addressed to him by Mr. Maskelyne in 
1775* 
Greenwich, 4th August, 1775. 
Sir : 
I received your late favor, together with your observations of the comet of 
1770, and some (copies) of that of 1769, for which I thank you. I shall 
communicate (them) to the Royal Society as you give me leave. In the 
present unhappy situation of American affairs, I have not the least idea 
that anything can be done towards erecting an observatory at Philadelphia, and 
therefore cannot think it proper forme to take a part in any memorial you may 
think proper to lay before my Lord North at Present. I do not mean, how- 
ever, to discourage you from presenting a memorial from yourself. Were an 
observatory to be erected in that city, I do not know any person there more 
capable of taking care of it than yourself. Should Lord North do me the 
honour to ask my opinion about the utility of erecting an observatory at Phila- 
delphia, I should then be enabled to speak out, being always a well wisher to 
the promotion of science. You did not distinguish whether the times of your 
observations were apparent or mean time. 
I am, 
Your most humble servant, 
N. Maskelyne. 
To the Rev. Dr. Ewing, at 
No. 25, Ludgate Street. 
In this connection mention should be made of the ex- 
tended astronomical work done from 1763 to 1767, by Charles 
Mason, an assistant of Maskelyne, and Jeremiah Dixon, 
while surveying the boundary line between Pennsylvania and 
Maryland, and especially of the successful measurement by 
them of a meridian of latitude. Mason was a man of high 
scientific standing, but, though he became a citizen of Phila- 
delphia, where he died in 1787, little is known of him beyond 
the record of his scientific work. He had been one of the 
observers of a transit of Venus at the Cape of Good Hope 
in 1761, and it was no doubt he who inspired the American 
Philosophical Society to its effort in 1769. 
Another event in the Adams administration was the 
beginning of the National Botanic Garden. The foundation 66 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[156 
of such an institution was one of the earliest of the projects for 
the improvement of the capital. Washington decided that 
it should be closely connected with the National University, 
on the site now occupied by the National Observatory, and 
stipulated that, should this site not be found available, 
another spot of ground, appropriated on the early maps to a 
marine hospital, might be substituted. The Columbian 
Institute, already referred to, had begun the formation of 
an arboretum as early as 1822, and in 1829 applied unsuccess- 
fully to Congress for an appropriation to reimburse it for 
its expenditures. There was, however, no definite foundation 
until 1852, when the numerous living plants which had been 
brought back by the Wilkes Exploring Expedition in the 
Pacific, and which had for several years been kept in green- 
houses adjoining the Patent Office, in which the natural- 
history collections of the expedition were kept, were re- 
moved to the present site of the Botanical Garden on the 
south side of Pennsylvania Avenue just west of the Capitol. 
This garden was first under the direction of Mr. W. D. 
Brackenridge, who had been the horticulturist of the 
Wilkes Expedition. Mr. Brackenridge was succeeded by Mr. 
William R. Smith, a pupil of the Kew Botanical Garden, 
who has since been in charge of the establishment, and 
through whose industry it has been developed into a most 
creditable institution, which, it is hoped, may in time have 
an opportunity to exhibit its merits in a more suitable and 
less crowded locality. 
Under Jackson, from 1829 to 1837, notwithstanding the 
remarkable commercial prosperity, and an almost equal 
advance in literature, science did not prosper, and of actual 
progress there is little to record. The Coast Survey was 
reorganized under its original superintendent, Hassler, in 
1832, and Featherstonehaugh, an English geologist, made, 
in 1834, a reconnoissance in the elevated region between the 
Missouri and the Red River. 
Van Buren’s administration, which began in 1837 and 
ended in 1841, presents more points of interest, for although 157] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
67 
the country was in a state of financial depression, his Cabinet 
was composed of extremely liberal and public-spirited men. 
Poinsett as Secretary of War, Kennedy as Secretary of the 
Navy, and other public men did much to promote science. 
The United States Exploring Expedition was sent out 
under Captain Charles Wilkes, on a voyage of circumnaviga- 
tion. Although published in an extremely limited edition, 
the magnificent volumes of its report are among the classics 
of scientific exploration. 
The Wilkes Expedition was the first of a series of naval 
explorations which have contributed largely to science— 
Lynch’s “ Dead Sea Expedition,” Gilliss’s “ Naval Astro- 
nomical Expedition ” to Chili, Herndon and Gibbons’s “ Ex- 
ploration of the Valley of the Amazons,” Page’s Paraguay 
Expedition, the “ Cruise of the Dolphin,” Perry’s Japan 
Expedition, Rogers’s North Pacific Exploring Expedition, 
and the various expeditions made under the Hydrographic 
Office and the Coast Survey. 
In 1840 two important national societies were founded, 
the National Institution for the Promotion of Science, and 
the American Society of Geologists and Naturalists,—the 
one an association with a great membership, scientific and 
otherwise, including a large number of government officials ; 
the other composed exclusively of professional naturalists. 
The purpose of each was the advancement of the scientific 
interests of the nation, which seemed more likely to receive 
substantial aid, now that the money bequeathed by Smith- 
son was lying in the Treasury vaults, waiting to be used. 
The National Institution under the leadership of Joel R. 
Poinsett of South Carolina, then Secretary of War, assisted by 
General J. J. Abert, F. A. Markoe, and others, had a short but 
brilliant career, which endured until the close of the Tyler 
administration, and had an important influence on public 
opinion, bringing about in the minds of the people and of 
Congress a disposition to make proper use of the Smithson 
bequest, and which also did much to prepare the way for 
the National Museum. The extensive collections of the 
National Institution and those of the Wilkes Expedition, and 68 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[158 
other government surveys were in time merged with those 
of the Smithsonian Institution, and having been greatly 
increased at the close of the Centennial Exposition, began 
in 1879 to receive substantial support from Congress. 
The Society of Geologists was not so prominent at the 
time, but it has had a longer history, for in 1850 it became 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
Although it dated its origin from 1840, it was essentially 
a revival and continuation of the old American Geological 
Society, organized September 6, 1819, in the Philosophical 
Room of Yale College, and in its day a most important 
body. Its members, following European usage, appended to 
their names the symbols “ M. A. G. S.,” and among them were 
many distinguished men, for at that time almost every one 
who studied any branch of science, cultivated geology also. 
The American Association prepared the way for the 
National Academy of Sciences, which was established by 
Congress in 1863, having for its first president, Alexander 
Dallas Bache, who in his presidential address at the second 
meeting of the American Association, twelve years before, 
had pointed out the fact that “ an institution of science 
supplementary to existing ones is much needed to guide 
public action in reference to scientific matters,” 1 and whose 
personal influence was very potent in bringing that institution 
into existence. In advocating before Congress the plan for 
the National Academy of Sciences, Senator Sumner avow- 
edly followed the lead of Joel Barlow, the projector of the 
National Institution in i8o6.a 
1 “ Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
1851,” pp. 6 and 48. 
s The idea of an Academy of Sciences with unlocalized membership and, like 
the Royal Society and the French Academy, holding advisory relations with the 
general government, appears to have been present in the minds of many of the 
early statesmen. Washington, in his project for a great national university, 
doubtless intended to include every thing of this kind. Joel Barlow and 
Thomas Jefferson at the beginning of the century were engaged in correspond- 
ence “about learned societies, universities and public instruction.” John 
Adams in a letter to Cutler, dated Quincy, May 1,1802, referred to a scheme for 
the establishment of a national academy of arts and sciences, in which Mitchell, 
of New York, was interested, and which was to come up for discussion at a meet- 
ing in that city in the following month. Life of Manasseh Cutler, ii., p. 87. 159] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
69 
The system of national scientific organizations, thus in- 
augurated, is still expanding. Within the past few years, 
there have sprung into existence a considerable number of 
learned societies devoted to special subjects, usually with 
unlocalized membership, and holding meetings from year to 
year in different cities. Among these are those named 
below: 
The American Anatomical Society. 
The American Dialect Society. 
The American Folk-lore Society. 
The American Geographical Society (of New York) and the 
National Geographic Society (of Washington). 
The American Geological Society. 
The American Historical Association. 
The American Institute of Mining Engineers. 
The American Meteorological Society. 
The American Metrological Society. 
The American Oriental Society. 
The American Ornithologists Union. 
The American Philological Association. 
The American Physiological Society. 
The American Society of Naturalists. 
The American Society for Psychical Research. 
The Archaeological Institute of America. 
The Botanical Club of the American Association. 
The Franklin Institute. 
That the organization of such societies had been so long 
delayed, was perhaps due to the fact that during the first six 
decades of the century the number of scientific investigators 
was comparatively small, and scientific work of original 
character was confined to a few of the large cities, so that 
local organizations, supplemented by the annual summer 
meetings of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, answered all needs. Since the close of the Civil 
War, and of the period of ten years which elapsed before 
our country was restored to commercial prosperity, and 
indeed before it had begun to fully feel the effects of the 
great scientific renaissance which originated in 1859 with the 
publication of Darwin’s “ Origin of Species,” there has been 
a great increase in the number of persons whose time is 
chiefly devoted to original scientific work. 70 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[160 
Nothing has contributed so materially to this state of 
affairs as the passage by Congress in 1862 of the bill, intro- 
duced by the Hon. Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont, to 
establish scientific and industrial educational institutions in 
every State, supplemented in 1887 by the Hatch bill for the 
founding of the agricultural experiment stations.1 The move- 
ment was at first unpopular among American educators, but 
after a quarter of a century of trial the land-grant college 
system has not only demonstrated its right to exist, but is 
by many regarded as forming one of the chief strongholds 
of our national scientific prosperity.2 
One of the most important effects of the movement has 
been to stimulate the establishment of State scientific schools 
and universities, and every one of the forty-two common- 
wealths has already a university or a college performing, or 
intended to perform, university functions. 
It is worthy of remark that with six exceptions every 
State has in less than twenty years of its admission had a 
State college or university of its own. Only twelve have 
delayed more than ten years, and fifteen have come into the 
1 See App. D, and also A. C. True's “A Brief Account of the Experiment 
Station Movement in the United States,” U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
Experiment Station Bulletin No. I, 1889, pp. 73-78. 
* The following statements were made in a Report of the Committee of the 
House of Representatives, March 3, 1886 : 
“ The act appropriating script to the amount of 30,000 acres for each Sena- 
tor and Representative in Congress for the endowment of colleges for the 
benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, which was passed in 1862, has 
been fruitful. Some of the States endowed single colleges, while others divided 
the gift between two or three. There were 17,430,000 acres of script and land 
granted, and the fund arising from their sales is $7,545,405. This has been 
increased by gifts from the States and from benevolent individuals of grounds, 
buildings, and apparatus to the amount of $5,000,000 more. And the last 
reports show that these colleges employed more than four hundred professors, 
and had under instruction more than four thousand students. This donation 
of the public funds has been eminently profitable for the government and the 
country. Many thousands of young men educated in science have already 
gone out from their colleges to engage in the practical duties of life, and the 
provision is made for sending out a continued succession of these for all future 
time. And as science is not limited by State boundaries, it makes but little 
difference for the common good which of these institutions or States these 
graduates come from ; their attainments are for the common good.” i6i] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
71 
Union already equipped. Ten of these were colonies and 
original States. All but one of the remainder were those 
admitted in 1889, for each of our four new States was pro- 
vided with the nucleus of a State university before it sought 
admission to the Union. Twenty-eight of the State and 
Territorial Universities had their origin in land grants from 
the General Government other than those for agricultural 
and mechanical colleges.1 
The completeness of the State system of scientific educa- 
tional institutions is in marked contrast with that of the 
scientific societies in the same States, organized by the 
direct action of the people rather than by government. 
Academies of science bearing the names of the States of 
our confederation and often sanctioned by their laws, may be 
regarded as in some sense national. Although nearly all of 
our States have historical societies, only twelve of the forty- 
two have academies of science, or organizations which are 
their equivalent. That there should be in 1889 thirty States 
without academies of science, and fourteen States and Terri- 
tories in which there are no scientific societies of any 
description whatever, is a noteworthy fact.2 
1 See Appendix E, and also F. W. Blackmar’s “ History of Federal and State 
Aid to Higher Education,” etc., Washington, 1890. 
2 The following is a list of those already in existence : 
State Academies of Science, etc., 1890. 
California.—The California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, 1854. 
Columbia.—The Affiliated Scientific Societies of Washington City :—The 
Philosophical Society, 1871 ; The Anthropological Society, 1879 ; The 
Biological Society, 1880; The Chemical Society, 1889; The National 
Geographic Society, 1888. 
Connecticut.—The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1799. 
Indiana.—The Indiana Academy of Sciences, 1885. 
Iowa.—The Iowa Academy of Sciences, Iowa City, 1875. 
Kansas.—The Kansas Academy of Science, Topeka, 1868. 
Maryland.—The Maryland Academy of Sciences, Baltimore, 1822. 
Massachusetts.—The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, 1780. 
Minnesota.—The Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences, Minneapolis, 1873. 
Missouri.—The St. Louis Academy of Science, St. Louis, 1857. 
New York.—The New York Academy of Science, New York City, 1817. 
Pennsylvania.—The American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1743. 
Wisconsin.—Wisconsin Academy of Arts, Science, and Letters, Madison, 1870. 72 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[162 
During Van Buren’s presidency, the Department of Agri- 
culture had its formal beginning. 
The chief promoter of this idea was Henry L. Ellsworth, 
of Connecticut, Commissioner of Patents, whose efforts 
culminated twenty-six years later in the establishment of a 
department, and, after another period of twenty-six years, in 
the elevation of the head of that department to the dignity 
of a Cabinet officer. Ellsworth began work by distributing 
seeds and plants for experimental culture, acquiring these 
without expense, and sending them out under the franks of 
friendly Congressmen. After three years (in 1839) Congress 
recognized the value of the work in this direction by appro- 
priating one thousand dollars from the Patent-Office fund 
to enable him to collect and distribute seeds, to collect 
agricultural statistics, and to make agricultural investiga- 
tions. Appointed by Jackson in 1836, Ellsworth served 
through the two successive terms of Van Buren and Tyler, 
and in his nine years of official work his devotion to the 
interests of agriculture produced excellent results, and 
placed the service on a firm foundation. Though Newton 
was in name the first commissioner of agriculture, Ellsworth 
deserves to be kept in memory as the real founder of the 
department. 
The appropriations at first were insignificant, and occa- 
sionally, as in 1841, 1842, and 1846, Congress seems to have 
forgotten to make any provision whatever for the work, 
which consequently went forward under difficulties. In 
1853 the first appropriation directly for agriculture was 
made, in 1855 the whole amount up to that time with- 
drawn for this purpose from the Patent-Office fund was 
reimbursed, and from that time on the money grants 
became yearly larger, and the work was allowed slowly to 
expand. The seed work increased, and in 1856 a propagat- 
ing garden was begun. The agricultural report, which 
began in 1841, and was until 1862 printed as a part of that 
of the Patent Office, became yearly more extensive, and 
showed a general average annual growth in value. In 1854 
work in economic entomology began, with the appointment 163] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
73 
of Townend Glover to investigate and report upon the 
habits of insects, injurious and beneficial to agriculture. In 
1855 the chemical and botanical divisions were inaugurated. 
David P. Holloway of Indiana, the thirteenth Commis- 
sioner of Patents, was instrumental in effecting a most 
important reform in the scientific administration of the 
government. In his first annual report, made in January, 
1862, he advocated enthusiastically the creation of a De- 
partment of the Productive Arts, to be charged with the 
care of agriculture and all the other industrial interests of 
the country, and he was so far successful that, on May 15th, 
Congress established the Department of Agriculture. The 
first Commissioner was Isaac Newton, who had been for a 
year or more Superintendent of the Agricultural Division of 
the Patent Office. From 1862 to 1889 there were six Com- 
missioners : Newton (1862-67), Capron (1867-71), Watts 
*(1871—77), Le Due (1877-81), Loring (1881-85), and Coleman 
(1885-89), and under the administration of each important 
advances were made, and the value of the work became 
yearly greater. Buildings were erected ; a chemical labora- 
tory established ; the departments of animal industry, 
economic ornithology and mammalogy, pomology, vegetable 
pathology, silk culture, microscopy, forestry, and experi- 
ment stations were added, and the system of publications 
greatly extended. The department, as now organized, is 
one of the most vigorous of our national scientific insti- 
tutions, and with its powerful staff and its close affiliations 
with the forty-six State agricultural experiment stations, 
manned as they are by nearly four hundred trained in- 
vestigators, it has possibilities for the future which can 
scarcely be overestimated.1 
1 The first agricultural “experiment station” under that specific designation 
in the United States was established at Middletown, Conn., in 1875, by the 
joint action of Mr. Orange Judd, the trustees of the university at Middletown, 
and the State Legislature, with Prof. W. O. Atwater, as director, and was 
located in the “Orange Judd Hall of Natural Science.” The example was 
speedily followed elsewhere, so that in 1880 there were four, and in 1886 some 
seventeen of these institutions in fourteen States. The appropriation by 
Congress of $15,000 per annum to each of the States and Territories which 74 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[164 
The term of the ninth President was too short to afford 
matter for comment. It should be mentioned, however, 
that General Harrison published, in Cincinnati in 1838, “A 
Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio,” and 
was the only President except Jefferson and John Quincy 
Adams, who has ever produced a treatise upon a scientific 
theme. 
Mr. Tyler’s administration was chiefly remarkable by rea- 
son of the formal and final establishment of the National 
Observatory, which, as we have seen, took place in 1842. 
President Polk served from 1845 to 1849. During this 
period the Smithsonian Institution was organized. The Coast 
Survey had been reorganized in 1843-44 under the superin- 
tendency of Alexander Dallas Bache; while the Observatory, 
under the patronage of Mr. George Bancroft, as Secretary 
of the Navy, had been greatly strengthened and extended ; 
and in 1845 was founded at Annapolis the Naval Academy, 
an institution among whose graduates are numbered many 
have established agricultural colleges, or agricultural departments of colleges, 
has led to the establishment of new stations or the increased development of 
stations previously established under State authority, so that there are to-day 
forty-six stations in the United States. Several of these have sub-stations 
working under their management. Every State has at least one station, 
several have two, one has three, and Dakota has set the Territories an example 
by establishing one within her boundaries. 
These forty-six stations employ nearly 400 men in the prosecution of exper 
imental inquiry. The appropriation by the United States Government for the 
current year, for them and for the Office of Experiment Stations in this Depart- 
ment, is $600,000. The several States appropriate about $125,000 in addition, 
making the sum total of about $725,000 given from public funds, the present 
year, for the support of agricultural experiment stations in the United States. 
“ Of all the scientific enterprises which the Government has undertaken,” 
wrote Secretary Coleman, “scarcely any other has impressed its value upon 
the people and their representatives in the State and national legislatures so 
speedily and so strongly as this. The rapid growth of an enterprise for 
elevating agriculture by the aid of science, its espousal by the United States 
Government, its development to its present dimensions in the short period of 
fourteen years, and, finally, the favor with which it is received by the public 
at large, are a striking illustration of the appreciation on the part of the 
American people of the wisdom and the usefulness of calling the highest 
science to the aid of the arts and industries of life.” 165] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
75 
men who have contributed materially to the advancement 
of science. 
A little later, in 1848, in connection with the same move- 
ment, the position of Professor of Mathematics in the 
navy was dignified and improved, and their numbers limited 
with manifest advantage to the scientific service of the 
government. 
During this and the succeeding administrations, govern- 
mental science, stimulated by Bache, Henry, and Maury, 
scientific administrators of a new and more vigorous type 
than had been previously known in Washington, rapidly 
advanced, and prior to 1861 the institutions then existing 
had made material progress. 
Those of more recent growth, such as the Army Medical 
Museum, founded in 1862,1 the Bureau of Education, founded 
in 1867/ the Fish Commission, founded in 1870/ the Bureau 
of Ethnology, founded in 1879,4 although not less important 
than many of those already discussed, are so recent in origin 
that the events connected with their development have not 
passed into the domain of history. 
The material results of the scientific work of the govern- 
ment during the past ten years undoubtedly surpass in 
extent all that had been accomplished during the previous 
hundred years of the independent existence of the nation. 
With this recent period the present paper has no concern, 
for it has been written from the standpoint of Carlyle, who, 
in “Sartor Resartus,” states his belief that “in every phe- 
nomenon the beginning remains always the most notable 
moment/’ 
It is nevertheless very encouraging to be assured that the 
attitude of our government toward scientific and educa- 
1 See J. S. Billings : “ Medical Museums, with Special Reference to the Army 
Medical Museum at Washington.” President’s address, delivered before the 
Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons, September 20, 1888. 
s See the eighteen annual reports of the Commission of Education. 
’See G. Brown Goode : “ The Status of the U. S. Fish Commission in 1884,” 
etc. Washington, 1884. 
4 See the six annual reports of the Bureau, and the Smithsonian reports, 
1879-88. 76 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[i 66 
tional enterprises is every year becoming more and more in 
harmony with the hopes of the founders of our Republic— 
and in accord with the views of such men as Washington, 
Franklin, Jefferson, John Adams, Madison, Monroe, John 
Quincy Adams, Gallatin, and Rush. 
It is also encouraging to know that the national attitude 
toward science is the subject of constant approving com- 
ment in Europe. Perhaps the most significant recent 
utterance was that of Sir Lyon Playfair in his address before 
the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at 
the Aberdeen meeting. 
“ On September 14, 1859,” he said “ I sat on this platform and listened 
to the eloquent address and wise counsel of the Prince Consort. At one time 
a member of the household, it was my privilege to co-operate with this illus- 
trious prince in many questions relating to the advancement of science. I 
naturally, therefore, turned to his presidential address to see whether I might 
not now continue those counsels which he then gave with all the breadth and 
comprehensiveness of his masterly speeches. I found, as I expected, a text for 
my own discourse in some pregnant remarks which he made upon the relation of 
science to the State. They are as follows : ‘ We may be justified in hoping . . . 
that the Legislature and the State will more and more recognise the claims of 
science to their attention, so that it may no longer require the begging-box, 
but speak to the State like a favoured child to its parent, sure of his paternal 
solicitude for its welfare; that the State will recognise in science one of its 
elements of strength and prosperity, to foster which the clearest dictates of self- 
interest demand.’ 
“ This opinion, in its broadest sense, means that the relations of science to 
the State should be made more intimate because the advance of science is need- 
ful to the public weal. 
“ The importance of promoting science as a duty of statecraft was well 
enough known to the ancients, especially to the Greeks and Arabs, but it 
ceased to be recognised in the dark ages, and was lost to sight during the 
revival of letters in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Germany and 
France, which are now in such active competition in promoting science, have 
only publicly acknowledged its national importance in recent times. Even in 
the last century, though France had its Lavoisier and Germany its Leibnitz, 
their Governments did not know the value of science. When the former was 
condemned to death in the Reign of Terror, a petition was presented to the 
rulers that his life might be spared for a few weeks in order that he might com- 
plete some important experiments, but the reply was, 4 The Republic has no 
need of savants.’ Earlier in the century the much-praised Frederick William 
of Prussia shouted with a loud voice, during a graduation ceremony in the 
University of Frankfort, 4 An ounce of Mother-wit is worth a ton of university 
wisdom.’ Both France and Germany are now ashamed of these utterances of i67] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
77 
their rulers, and make energetic efforts to advance science with the aid of their 
national resources. More remarkable is it to see a young nation like the 
United States reserving 150,000,000 acres of national lands for the promotion 
of scientific education. In some respects this young country is in advance of 
all European nations in joining science to its administrative offices. Its scien- 
tific publications are an example to other Governments. The Minister of 
Agriculture is surrounded with a staff of botanists and chemists. The Home 
Secretary is aided by a special Scientific Commission to investigate the habits, 
migrations, and food of fishes, and the latter has at its disposal two specially 
constructed steamers of large tonnage. 
“ In the United Kingdom we are just beginning to understand the wisdom of 
Washington's farewell address to his countrymen when he said : ‘ Promote, as 
an object of primary importance, institutions for the increase and diffusion of 
knowledge; in proportion as the structure of a Government gives force to pub- 
lic opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.' " APPENDIX A. 
PLAN OF A FEDERAL UNIVERSITY. 
[From the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1788. Quoted in the Massachusetts Centinel, 
Saturday, Nov, 29, 1788.] 
“Your government cannot be executed, it is too extensive for a republick. 
It is contrary to the habits of the people ” say the enemies of the Constitution 
of the United States. However opposite to the opinions and wishes of a 
majority of the citizens of the United States these declarations and predictions 
may be, they will certainly come to pass, unless the people are prepared for 
our new form of government, by an education adapted to the new and peculiar 
situation of our country,—To effect this great and necessary work, let one of 
the first acts of the new Congress be, to establish, within the district to be allotted 
for them, a federal University, into which the youth of the United States shal 
be received after they have finished their studies, and taken degrees in the col- 
leges of their respective States. In this University let those branches of liter- 
ature only be taught, which are calculated to prepare our youth for public and 
civil life. These branches should be taught by means of lectures, and the 
following arts and sciences should be the subject of them : 
1. The principles and forms of government applied in a particular manner, 
to the explanation of every part of the Constitution and laws of the United 
States, together with the laws of nature and nations, which last should include 
everything that relates to peace, war, treaties, ambassadours, and the like. 
2. History, both ancient and modern, and chronology. 
3. Agriculture in all numerous and extensive branches. 
4. The principles and practice of manufactures. 
5. History, principles, objects, and channels of commerce. 
6. Those parts of mathematicks, which are necessary to the division of 
property, to finance, and to the principles and practice of war—for there is too 
much reason to fear that war will continue, for some time to come, to be the 
unchristian mode of deciding disputes between Christian nations. 
7. Those parts of natural philosophy and chemistry, which admit of an 
application to agriculture, manufacture, commerce, and war. 
i69] 
79 80 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[170 
8. Natural History, which includes the history of animals, vegetables, and 
fossils. To render instruction in these branches of science easy, it will be neces- 
sary to establish a museum, and also a garden, in which not only all the shrubs, 
etc., but all the forest trees of the United States should be cultivated. The 
great Linnaeus of Upsal enlarged the commerce of Sweden, by his discoveries 
in natural history, he once saved the Swedish Navy, by finding out the time in 
which a worm laid its eggs, and recommending the immersion of the timber of 
which the ships were built, at that season wholly under water. So great were 
the services this illustrious naturalist rendered his country by the application of 
his knowledge to agriculture, manufacture, and commerce, that the present 
King of Sweden pronounced an eulogium upon him, from his throne, soon 
after his death. 
9. Philology, which should include, under rhetoric and criticism, lectures 
upon the construction and pronunciation of the English language. Instruction 
in this branch of literature will become the more necessary in America, as our 
intercourse must soon cease with the bar, the stage and the pulpits of Great 
Britain, from whence we receive our knowledge of the pronunciation of the 
English language. Even modem English books should cease to be the models 
of stile in the United States. The present is the age of simplicity in writing in 
America. The turgid stile of Johnson, the purple glare of Gibbon, and even 
the studied and thickest metaphours of Junius are all equally unnatural, and 
should not be admitted into our country. The cultivation and perfection of 
our language becomes a matter of consequence when viewed in another light. 
It will probably be spoken by more people in the course of two or three cen- 
turies, than ever spoke any one language at one time since the creation of the 
world. When we consider the influence which the prevalence of only two 
languages, viz. the English and the Spanish, in the extensive regions of North 
and South America, will have upon manners, commerce, knowledge and civil- 
ization, scenes of human happiness and glory open before us, which elude from 
their magnitude the utmost grasp of the human understanding. 
10. The German and French languages should be taught in this University, 
the many excellent books which are written in both these languages upon all 
subjects, more especially upon those which relate to the advancement of 
national improvements of all kinds, will render a knowledge of them an essen- 
tial part of the education of a legislator of the United States. 
11. All those athletick and manly exercises should likewise be taught in the 
University, which are calculated to impart health, strength, and elegance to 
the human body. 
To render the instruction of our youth as easy and extensive as possible in 
several of the above mentioned branches of literature, let four young men of 
good education, and active minds be sent abroad at publick expense, to collect 
and transmit to the professors of the said branches all the improvements that 
are daily made in Europe in agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and in 
the arts of war and practical government, this measure is rendered the more 
necessary from the distance of the United States from Europe, by which means 
the rays of knowledge strike the United States so partially that they can be 
brought to a useful focus, only by employing suitable men to collect and trans- 171] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
81 
mit them to our country. It is in this manner that the northern nations of 
Europe have imported so much knowledge from their southern neighbors, 
that the history of the agriculture, manufactures, commerce, revenues, and 
military art of one of these nations will soon be alike applicable to all of 
them. 
Besides sending four young men abroad to collect and transmit knowledge 
for the benefit of our country, two young men of suitable capacities should be 
employed, at the public expense, in exploring the vegetable, mineral, and 
animal productions of our country, in procuring histories and samples of each 
of them, and in transmitting them to the Professor of Natural History. It 
is in consequence of the discoveries made by young gentlemen employed 
for these purposes, that Sweden, Denmark, and Russia have extended their 
manufactures and commerce, so as to rival in both the oldest nations in 
Europe. 
Let the Congress allow a liberal salary to the Principal of this University. 
Let it be his business to govern the students, and to inspire them by his con- 
versation, and by his occasional publick discourses, with federal and patriotic 
sentiments. Let this Principal be a man of extensive education, liberal 
manners, and dignified deportment. 
Let the Professors of each of the branches that have been mentioned, have 
a moderate salary of 150 or 200 pounds a year, and let them depend upon 
the number of their pupils to supply the deficiency of their maintenance from 
their salaries. Let each pupil pay for each course of lectures two or three 
guineas. 
Let the degrees conferred in this University receive a new name, that shall 
designate the design of an education for civil and publick life. Should this plan 
of a federal University, or one like it, be adopted, then will begin the golden 
age of the United States. While the business of education in Europe consists 
in lectures upon the ruins of Palmyra, and the antiquities of Herculaneum ; or 
in dispute about Hebrew points, Greek particles, or the accent and quantity of 
the Roman language, the youth of America will be employed in acquiring 
those branches of knowledge which increase the convenience of life, lessen 
human misery, improve our country, promote population, exalt the human 
understanding, and establish domestiek, social, and political happiness. 
Let it not be said, that this is not the time for such a literary and political 
establishment. Let us first restore publick credit, by funding or paying our 
debts—let us regulate our militia—let us build a navy—and let us protect and 
extend our commerce. After this we shall have leisure and money to establish 
a University for the purposes that have been mentioned. This is false reason- 
ing. We shall never restore publick credit—regulate our militia—build a navy 
—or revive our commerce, until we remove the ignorance and prejudices, and 
change the habits of our citizens, and this can never be done until we inspire 
them with federal principles, which can only be effected by our young men 
meeting and spending two or three years together in a National University, 
and afterwards disseminating their knowledge and principles through every 
county, town, and village of the United States. Until this is done—Senators 
and Represenatives of the United States, you will undertake to make bricks 82 
G. Brozvn Goode s Paper. 
[172 
without straw. Your supposed union in Congress will be a rope of sand. The 
inhabitants of Massachusetts began the business of government by establishing 
the University of Cambridge, and the wisest Kings in Europe have always 
found their literary institutions the surest means of establishing their power, as 
well as of promoting the prosperity of their people. 
These hints for establishing the constitution and happiness of the United 
States upon a permanent foundation are submitted to the friends of the federal 
government, in each of the States, by a Private CITIZEN OF PENNSYL- 
VANIA. 
APPENDIX B. 
ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
1787. 
Benjamin Rush, M.D. 
[Reprinted from Niles’s, “ Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America,” 
pp. 402-404.] 
There is nothing more common than to confound the terms of American 
Revolution with those of the late American war. The American war is over, 
but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution. On the 
contrary, nothing but the great drama is closed. It remains yet to establish 
and perfect our new forms of government, and to prepare the principles, 
morals, and manners of our citizens for these forms of government after they 
are established and brought to perfection. 
The confederation, together with most of our State constitutions, was formed 
under very unfavorable circumstances. We had just emerged from a corrupted 
monarchy. Although we understood perfectly the principles of liberty, yet 
most of us were ignorant of the forms and combinations of power in republics. 
Add to this, the British army was in the heart of our country, spreading deso- 
lation wherever it went : our resentments, of course, were awakened. We 
detested the British name, and, unfortunately, refused to copy some things in 
the administration of justice and power in the British government which have 
made it the envy and admiration of the world. In our opposition to monarchy, 
we forgot that the temple of tyranny has two doors. We bolted one of them 
by the proper restraints, but we left the other open by neglecting to guard 
against the effects of our own ignorance and licentiousness. Most of the 
present difficulties of this country arise from the weakness and other defects of 
our governments. 
My business at present shall be only to suggest the defects of the confedera- 
tion. These consist—1st. In the deficiency of coercive power. 2d. In a defect 
of exclusive power to issue paper money and regulate commerce. 3d. In vest- 173] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
83 
mg the sovereign power of the United States in a single legislature ; and, 4th, 
in the too frequent rotation of its members. 
A convention is to sit soon for the purpose of devising means of obviating 
part of the two first defects that have been mentioned. But I wish they may 
add to their recommendations to each State, to surrender up to Congress their 
power of emitting money. In this way, a uniform currency will be produced, 
that will facilitate trade, and help to bind the States together. Nor will the 
States' be deprived of large sums of money by this mean, when sudden emer- 
gencies require it, for they may always borrow them, as they did during the 
war, out of the treasury of Congress. Even a loan office may be better insti- 
tuted in this way in each State than in any other. 
The two last defects that have been mentioned are not of less magnitude 
than the first. Indeed, the single legislature of Congress will become more 
dangerous from an increase of power than ever. To remedy this, let the 
supreme federal power be divided, like the legislatures of most of our States, 
into two distinct, independent branches. Let one of them be styled the Coun- 
cil of the States, and the other the Assembly of the States. Let the first con- 
sist of a single delegate, and the second of two, three, or four delegates, chosen 
annually by each State. Let the President be chosen annually by the joint 
ballot of both Houses, and let him possess certain powers, in conjunction with 
a privy council, especially the power of appointing most of the officers of the 
United States. The officers of the United States. The officers will not only 
be better when appointed in this way, but one of the principal causes of faction 
will be thereby removed from Congress. I apprehend this division of the 
power of Congress will become more necessary as soon as they are invested 
with more ample powers of levying and expending the public money. 
The custom of turning men out of power or office as soon as they are quali- 
fied for it has been found to be as absurd in practice as it is virtuous to dismiss 
a general, a physician, or even a domestic, as soon as they have acquired 
knowledge sufficient to be useful to us, for the sake of increasing the number 
of able generals, skilful physicians, and faithful servants? We do not. Gov- 
ernment is a science, and can never be perfect in America until we encourage 
men to devote not only three years but their whole lives to it. I believe the 
principal reason why so many men of abilities object to serving in Congress is 
owing to their not thinking it worth while to spend three years in acquiring a 
profession which their country immediately afterwards forbids them to follow. 
There are two errors or prejudices on the subject of government in America 
which lead to the most dangerous consequences. 
It is often said “ that the sovereign and all other power is seated in the 
people.” This idea is unhappily expressed. It should be, “ all power is 
derived from the people” ; they possess it only on the days of their elections. 
After this, it is the property of their rulers ; nor can they exercise or resume it, 
unless it be abused. It is of importance to circulate this idea, as it leads to 
order and good government. 
The people of America have mistaken the meaning of the word sovereignty, 
hence each State pretends to be sovereign. In Europe it is applied only to 
those states which possess the power of making war and peace, of forming 84 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[i74 
treaties, and the like. As this power belongs only to Congress, they are the 
only sovereign power in the United States. 
We commit a similar mistake in our ideas of the word independent. No in- 
dividual State, as such, has any claim to independence ; she is independent 
only in a union with her sister States in Congress. 
To conform the principles, morals and manners of our citizens, to our 
republican forms of government, it is absolutely necessary that knowledge of 
every kind should be disseminated through every part of the United States. 
For this purpose, let Congress, instead of laying out half a million of dollars in 
building a federal town, appropriate only a fourth of that sum in founding a 
federal university. In this university let every thing connected with govern- 
ment, such as history—the law of nature and nations—the civil law—the 
municipal laws of our country—and the principles of commerce—be taught by 
competent professors. Let masters be employed likewise to teach gunnery, 
fortification, and every thing connected with defensive and offensive war. 
Above all, let a professor of, what is called in the European universities, 
economy, be established in this federal seminary. His business should be to 
unfold the principles and practice of agriculture and manufactures of all kind, 
and to enable him to make his lectures more extensively useful, Congress 
should support a travelling correspondent for him, who should visit all the 
nations of Europe, and transmit to him, from time to time, all the discoveries 
and improvements that are made in agriculture and manufactures. To this 
seminary young men should be encouraged to repair, after completing their 
academical studies in the colleges of their respective States. The honors and 
offices of the United States should, after a while, be confined to persons who 
had imbibed federal and republican ideas in this university. 
For the purpose of diffusing knowledge, as well as extending the living 
principle of government to every part of the United States—every State—city— 
county—village—and township in the Union, should be tied together by means 
of the post-office. This is the true non-electric wire of government. It is the 
only means of conveying heat and light to every individual in the federal com- 
monwealth. “Sweden lost her liberties,” says the Abbe Raynal, “ because 
her citizens were so scattered, that they had no means of acting in concert with 
each other.” It should be a constant injunction to the post-masters to convey 
newspapers free of all charge for postage. They are not only the vehicles of 
knowledge and intelligence, but the centinels of the liberties of our country. 
The conduct of some of those strangers who have visited our country since 
the peace, and who fill the British papers with accounts of our distresses, shews 
as great a want of good sense, as it does of good-nature. They see nothing but 
the foundations and walls of the temple of liberty ; and yet they undertake to 
judge of the whole fabric. 
Our own citizens act a still more absurd part, when they cry out, after the 
experience of three or four years, that we are not proper materials for republi- 
can government. Remember we assumed these forms of government in a 
hurry, before we were prepared for them. Let every man exert himself in 
promoting virtue and knowledge in our country, and we shall soon become 
good republicans. Look at the steps by which governments have been changed, 175J 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
85 
or rendered stable in Europe. Read the history of Great Britain. Her 
boasted government has risen out of wars and rebellions that lasted above six 
hundred years. The United States are travelling peaceably into order and 
good government. They know no strife but what arises from the collision of 
opinions; and, in three years, they have advanced further in the road to stability 
and happiness, than most of the nations in Europe have done, in as many 
centuries. 
There is but one path that can lead the United States to destruction ; and 
that is, their extent of territory. It is probable to effect this, that Great Britain 
ceded to us so much waste land. But even this path may be avoided. Let but 
one new State be exposed to sale at a time, and let the land-office be shut up, 
till every part of this new State be settled. 
I am extremely sorry to find a passion for retirement so universal among the 
patriots and heroes of the war. They resemble skilful mariners who, after 
exerting themselves to preserve a ship from sinking in a storm in the middle of 
the ocean, drop asleep as soon as the waves subside, and leave the care of 
their lives and property during the remainder of the voyage to sailors without 
knowledge or experience. Every man in a republic is public property. His 
time and talents—his youth—his manhood—his old age—nay more, his life, his 
all, belong to his country. 
Patriots of 1774, 1775, 1776—heroes of 1778, 1779, 1780 ! come forward ! 
your country demands your services ! Philosophers and friends of mankind, 
come forward ! your country demands your studies and speculations ! Lovers 
of peace and order, who declined taking part in the late war, come forward ! 
your country forgives your timidity and demands your influence and advice ! 
Hear her proclaiming, in sighs and groans, in her governments, in her finances, 
in her trade, in her manufactures, in her morals, and in her manners, 
“ THE REVOLUTION IS NOT OVER !” 
APPENDIX C. 
PROSPECTUS OF A NATIONAL INSTITUTION, TO BE ESTAB- 
LISHED IN THE UNITED STATES. 
By Joel Barlow. 
1806. 
[Reprinted from a defective copy of Barlow’s pamphlet in the Congressional 
Library, supplemented by the reprint in the National Intelligencer of 1806, 
and a MS. copy in the possession of Dr. J. C. Welling.] 
The project for erecting a university at the seat of the federal government 
is brought forward at a happy moment, and on liberal principles. We may 
therefore reasonably hope for an extensive endowment from the munificence of 
individuals, as well as from government itself. This expectation will naturally 
lead us to enlarge our ideas on the subject, and to give a greater scope to its 86 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[i;6 
practical operation than has usually been contemplated in institutions of a 
similar nature. 
Two distinct objects, which, in other countries have been kept asunder, 
may and ought to be united ; they are both of great national importance ; and 
by being embraced in the same Institution, they will aid each other in their ac- 
quisition. These are the advancement of knowledge by associations of scientific 
men, and the dissemination of its rudiments by the instruction of youth. The 
first has been the business of learned corporations, such as the Royal Society of 
London, and the National Institute of France ; the second is pursued by col- 
lections of instructors, under the name of universities, colleges, academies, etc. 
The leading principle of uniting these two branches of improvement in 
one Institution, to be extended upon a scale that will render it truly national, 
requires some developement. We find ourselves in possession of a country so 
vast as to lead the mind to anticipate a scene of social intercourse and interest 
unexampled in the experience of mankind. This territory presents and will 
present such a variety of productions, natural and artificial, such a diversity of 
connections abroad, and of manners, habits, and propensities at home, as will 
create a strong tendency to diverge and separate the views of those who shall 
inhabit the different regions within our limits. 
It is most essential to the happiness of the people and to the preservation 
of their republican principles, that this tendency to a separation should be over- 
balanced by superior motives to a harmony of sentiment ; that they may habitu- 
ally feel that community of interest on which their federal system is founded. 
This desirable object is to be attained, not only by the operations of the gov- 
ernment in its several departments, but by those of literature, sciences, and arts. 
The liberal sciences are in their nature republican ; they delight in reciprocal 
communication ; they cherish fraternal feelings, and lead to a freedom of 
intercourse, combined with the restraints of society, which contribute together 
to our improvement. 
To explore the natural productions of our country, give an enlightened 
direction to the labors of industry, explain the advantages of interior tranquil- 
lity, of moderation and justice in the pursuits of self-interest, and to promote 
as far as circumstances will admit, an assimilation of civil regulations, political 
principles and modes of education, must engage the solicitude of every patriotic 
citizen ; as he must perceive in them the necessary means of securing good 
morals and every republican virtue ; a wholesome jealousy of right and a clear 
understanding of duty ; without which, no people can be expected to enjoy the 
one or perform the other for any number of years. 
• The time is fast approaching when the United States, if no foreign disputes 
should induce an extraordinary expenditure of money, will be out of debt. 
From that time forward, the greater part of their public revenue may, and 
probably will, be applied to public improvements of various kinds ; such as 
facilitating the intercourse through all parts of their dominion by roads, bridges, 
and canals ; such as making more exact surveys, and forming maps and charts 
of the interior country, and of the coasts, bays and harbors, perfecting the sys- 
tem of lights, buoys, and other nautical aids ; such as encouraging new branches 
Of industry, so far as may be advantageous to the public, either by offering 
premiums for discoveries, or by purchasing from their proprietors such inven- i77] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
87 
tions as shall appear to be of immediate and general utility, and rendering 
them free to the citizens at large ; such as exploring the remaining parts of the 
wilderness of our continent, both within and without our own jurisdiction, and 
extending to their savage inhabitants, as far as may be practicable, a taste for 
civilization, and the means of knowing the comforts that men are capable of 
yielding to each other in the peaceable pursuits of industry, as they are under- 
stood in our stage of society. 
To prepare the way for the government to act on these great objects with 
intelligence, economy, and effect, and to aid its operations when it shall be 
ready to apply its funds to that purpose, will occupy in part the attention of 
that branch of the Institution composed of men of scientific research; whose 
labors, it is expected, will be in a great measure gratuitous. It cannot be too 
early, even at this moment, to direct the researches of science to occupations 
of this nature. By these means, at the end of the eleven years, the epoch at 
which the government may expect to be free of debt, the way can be prepared 
to begin with system, and proceed with regularity in the various details of public 
improvement; a business which, if the rulers of all nations did but know it, 
ought to be considered among the first of their duties, one of the principal 
objects of their appointment. 
The science of political economy is still in its infancy ; as indeed is the 
whole science of government, if we regard it as founded on principles analo- 
gous to the nature of man, and designed to promote his happiness. As we 
believe our government to be founded on these principles, we cannot but per- 
ceive an immense field of improvement opening before us ; a field in which all 
the physical as well as the moral sciences should lend their aid and unite their 
operation, to place human society on such a footing in this great section of the 
habitable world, as to secure it against farther convulsions from violence and 
war. Mankind have a right to expect this example from us ; we alone are in 
a situation to hold it up before them, to command their esteem, and perhaps 
their imitation. Should we, by a narrowness of views, neglect the opportunity 
of realizing so many benefits, we ought to reflect that it never can occur to us 
again ; nor can we foresee that it will return to any age or nation. We should 
grievously disappoint the expectations of all good in other countries, we should 
ourselves regret our error while we live ; and if posterity did not load us with 
the reproaches we should merit, it would be because our conduct will have 
kept them ignorant of the possibility of obtaining the blessings, of which it had 
deprived them. 
It would be superfluous, in this Prospectus, to point out the objects merely 
scientific, that will naturally engage the attention of this branch of the Institu- 
tion. We are sensible that many of the sciences, physical as well as moral, are 
very little advanced ; some of them, in which we seem to have made considera- 
ble progress, are yet so uncertain as to leave it doubtful whether even their first 
principles do not remain to be discovered ; and in all of them, there is a great 
deficiency as to the mode of familiarising their results, and applying them to 
the useful arts of life, the true object of all labor and research. 
What a range is open in this country for mineralogy and botany ! How many 
new arts are to arise, and how far the old ones are to be advanced, by the pur- 
suit of these two sciences, it is impossible even to imagine. Chemistry is making 88 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[178 
a rapid and useful progress, though we still dispute about its elements. Our 
knowledge of anatomy has laid a necessary and sure foundation for surgery 
and medicine ; surgery indeed is making great proficiency ; but, after three 
thousand years of recorded experience, how little do we know of medicine ! 
Mechanics and hydraulics are progressing fast, and wonderful are the facilities 
and comforts we draw from them ; but while it continues to be necessary to 
make use of animal force to move heavy bodies in any direction by land or 
water, we have a right to anticipate new discoveries. Could the genius of 
a Bacon place itself on the high ground of all the sciences in their present state 
of advancement, and marshal them before him in so great a country as this, 
and under a government like ours, he would point out their objects, foretell 
their successes, and move them on their march, in a manner that should animate 
their votaries and greatly accelerate their progress. 
The mathematics, considered as a science, may probably be susceptible of 
higher powers than it has yet attained ; considered as the handmaid of all the 
sciences and all the arts, it doubtless remains to be simplified. Some new pro- 
cesses, and perhaps new modes of expressing quantities and numbers, may yet 
be discovered, to assist the mind in climbing the difficult steps that lead to an 
elevation so much above our crude conceptions ; an elevation that subjects the 
material universe, with all its abstractions of space and time, to our inspection ; 
and opens, from their combinations, so many useful and satisfying truths. 
Researches in literature, to which may be united those in morals, govern- 
ment, and laws, are so vague in their nature, and have been so little meth- 
odised, as scarcely to have obtained the name of sciences. No man has de- 
nied the importance of these pursuits ; though the English nation, from whom 
we have borrowed so many useful things, has not thought proper to give them 
that consistency and standing among the objects of laudable ambition, to which 
they are entitled. Men the most eminent in these studies have not been mem- 
bers of their learned associations. Locke, Berkeley, Pope, Hume, Robertson, 
Gibbon, Adam Smith, and Blackstone, were never admitted into the Royal 
Society. This is doubtless owing to the nature of their government ; though 
the government itself exerts no influence in these elections. The science of 
morals connects itself so intimately with the principles of political institutions, 
that where it is deemed expedient to keep the latter out of sight, it is not 
strange that the former should meet no encouragement. 
This policy is strikingly exemplified in the history of the French Institute. 
That learned and respectable body was incorporated by the National Conven- 
tion in the year 1795, and took place of all the old academies, which had been 
previously abolished. It was composed of three classes, according to the ob- 
jects to be pursued by its members. The first was the class for the physical 
sciences, the second was the class for the moral and political sciences, the third 
was for the fine arts. Thus it went on and made great progress in several 
branches, till the year 1803, when Bonaparte’s government assumed that char- 
acter which rendered the pursuit of moral and political science inconvenient to 
him. He then new modelled the Institute, and abolished that class. But lest 
his real object should be perceived, and he be accused of narrowing the com- 
pass of research, he created two new classes in the room of this ; one for !79] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
89 
ancient literature, and one for the French language. On the same occasion an 
order was issued to all the colleges and great schools in France, suppressing the 
professorships of moral and political philosophy. 
But in our country, and at this early epoch in the course of republican 
experiment, no subjects of research can be more important than those embraced 
by these branches of science. Our representative system is new in practice, 
though some theories of that sort have been framed by speculative writers ; and 
partial trials have been made in the British Dominions. But our federal sys- 
tem, combined with democratical representation, is a magnificent stranger upon 
earth ; a new world of experiment, bursting with incalculable omens on the 
view of mankind. It was the result of circumstances which no man could fore- 
see, and no writer pretended to contemplate. It presented itself to us from the 
the necessity of the situation we were in ; dreaded at first as an evil by many 
good men in our own countiy, as well as by our friends in Europe ; and it is 
at this day far from being understood, or properly appreciated, by the generality 
of those who admire it. Our practice upon it, as far as we have gone, and the 
vast regions of our continent that present themselves to its embrace, must con- 
vince the world that it is the greatest improvement on the mechanism of 
government that has ever been discovered, the most consoling to the friends of 
liberty, humanity, and peace. 
Men who have grown old in the intrigues of cabinets, and those who, in 
the frensy of youthful ambition, present themselves on the theatre of politics, 
at the head of armies, which they cannot live without, are telling us that * no 
new principle of government has been discovered for these two thousand 
years’1 ; and that all proposals to ameliorate the system are vain abstractions, 
unworthy of a sound philosophy. They may tell us too that no new principle in 
mechanics had been discovered since we came to the knowledge of the lever ; 
no new principle in war, since we first found that a man would cease to fight 
the moment he was killed. Yet we see in the two latter cases that new combi- 
nations of principle have been discovered ; they are daily now discovered and 
carried into practice. In these there are no books written to inform us we can 
go no further ; no imperial decrees to arrest our progress. Why then should 
this be the case in those combinations of the moral sense of man, which com- 
pose the science of government ? 
But whether we consider the principles themselves as new, or the combination 
only as new, the fact with respect to our government is this : although the prin- 
ciple has long since been known that the powers necessarily exercised in regu- 
lating a great community, originate in the people at large, and that these powers 
cannot conveniently be exercised by the people at large ; yet it was not discovered 
how these powers could be conveniently exercised by a few delegates, in such a 
manner as to be constantly kept within the reach of the people at large, so as to 
be controlled by them without a convulsion. But a mode of doing this has been 
discovered in later years, and is now for the first time carried into practice in our 
country ; I do not say in the utmost perfection of which the principle is capable ; 
1 This is asserted in a book written to support the present government of 
France. I forget the title. 90 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[i8o 
yet in a manner which greatly contributes, with our other advantages, to render 
us the happiest people on earth. Again although the principle has long since 
been known, that good laws faithfully executed within a state, would protect 
the industry of men, and preserve interior tranquillity ; yet no method was dis- 
covered which would effectually preserve exterior tranquility between state and 
state. Treaties were made, oaths were exacted, the name of God was invoked, 
forts, garrisons, and armies were established on their respective frontiers ; all 
with the sincere desire, no doubt, of preserving peace. The whole of these 
precautions have been constantly found ineffectual. But we at last, and 
almost by accident, have discovered a mode of preserving peace among states, 
without any of the old precautions ; which were always found extremely 
expensive, destructive to liberty, and incapable of securing the object. We 
have found that states have some interests that are common and mutual among 
themselves ; that so far as these interests go, the states should not be indepen- 
dent ; that without losing any thing of their dignity, but rather increasing it, they 
can bind themselves together by federal government, composed of their own 
delegates, frequently and freely elected, to whom they can confide these com- 
mon interests ; and that by giving up to these delegates the exercise of certain 
acts of sovereignty, and retaining the rest to themselves, each state puts it out 
of its own power to withdraw from the confederation, and out of the power of 
the general government to deprive them of the rights they have retained. 
If these are not new principles of government, they are at least new com- 
binations of principles, which require to be developed, studied and understood 
better than they have been, even by ourselves ; but especially by the rising 
generation, and by all foreign observers who shall study our institutions. For- 
eigners will thus give us credit for what we have done, point out to our atten- 
tion what we have omitted to do, and perhaps aid us with their lights, in 
bringing towards perfection a system, which may be destined to ameliorate the 
condition of the human race. 
It is in this view that moral and political research ought to be regarded as 
one of the most important objects of the National Institution, the highest 
theme of literary emulation, whether in prose or verse, the constant stimulus 
to excite the ambition of youth in the course of education. 
What are called the fine arts, in distinction from what are called the use- 
ful, have been but little cultivated in America. Indeed, few of them have 
yet arrived, in modern times, to that degree of splendor which they had 
acquired among the ancients. Here we must examine an opinion, entertained 
by some persons, that the encouragement of the fine arts savors too much of 
luxury, and is unfavorable to republican principles. It is true, as is alleged, 
they have usually flourished most under despotic governments ; but so have corn 
and cattle. Republican principles have never been organised or understood, 
so as to form a government, in any country but our own. It is therefore from 
theory, rather than example, that we must reason on this subject. There is no 
doubt but that fine arts, both in those who cultivate and those who only admire 
them, open and expand the mind to great ideas. They inspire liberal feel- 
ings, create a harmony of temper, favorable to a sense of justice and a habit of 
moderation in our social intercourse. By increasing the circle of our pleasures, 181] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
91 
they moderate the intensity with which pleasures, not dependent on them, 
would be pursued. In proportion as they multiply our wants, they stimulate 
our industry, they diversify the objects of our ambition, they furnish new motives 
for a constant activity of mind and body, highly favorable to the health of 
both. The encouragement of a taste for elegant luxuries discourages the relish 
for luxuries that are gross and sensual, debilitating to the body, and demoral- 
ising to the mind. These last, it must be acknowledged, are prevailing in our 
country; they are perhaps the natural growth of domestic affluence and civil 
liberty. The government, however mild and paternal, cannot check them by 
any direct application of its powers, without improper encroachments on the 
liberty and affluence, that give them birth. But a taste for the elegant enjoy- 
ments which spring from the culture of the fine arts, excites passions not so 
irresistible, but that they are easily kept within the limits, which the means 
of each individual will prescribe. It is the friend of morals and of health ; 
it supposes a certain degree of information ; it necessitates liberal instruction ; 
it cannot but be favorable to republican manners, principles, and discipline. 
A taste for these arts is peculiarly desirable in those parts of our country, 
at the southward and westward, where the earth yields her rich productions 
with little labor, and leaves to the cultivator considerable vacancies of time and 
superfluities of wealth, which otherwise will, in all probability, be worse employed. 
The arts of drawing, painting, statuary, engraving, music, poetry, ornamental 
architecture, and ornamental gardening would employ a portion of the sur- 
plus time and money of our citizens ; and at the same time be more likely to 
dispose their minds to devote another portion to charitable and patriotic pur- 
poses, than if the first portion had not been thus employed. 
In England there is a Royal Academy for the fine arts, as well as a Royal 
Society for the sciences; though men of merit in other learned labors are 
not associated. In France the two classes of eminent men who pursue the 
sciences and the arts, are united in the National Institute. Besides these, and 
besides the colleges and universities, there exists in each of these countries a 
variety of institutions useful in their different objects, and highly conducive 
to the general mass of public improvement, as well as to private instruction. 
The French government supports: 
1. The School of Mines, an extensive establishment; where is preserved a 
collection of specimens from all the mines, wrought and unwrought, that are 
known to exist in that country; where, with the free use of a laboratory, lec- 
tures are given gratis one day in the week for nine months in the year, and 
where young men receive what is called a mineralogical education. At this 
place the proprietor of a mine, whether of metals, coals, or other valuable 
fossils, may have them examined without expense ; and here he can apply for 
an able and scientific artist, recommended by the professors, to be the conduc- 
tor of his works, as well in the engineering as the metallurgical branch. 
2. The School of Roads and Bridges ; whose title ought to extend likewise to 
canals, river navigation and hydraulic architecture ; since it embraces all these 
objects. Here are preserved models and drawings of all the great works, and 
many of the abortive attempts, in these branches of business. It is a curious 
and useful collection. This establishment too maintains its professors, who 92 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[i82 
give lectures gratis, and produce among their pupils the ablest draftsmen 
and civil engineers, ready to be employed where the public service or private 
enterprise may require. 
3. The Conservatory of Arts; meaning the useful arts and trades. This, 
in appearance, is a vast Babel of materials; consisting of tools, models, and 
entire machines, ancient and modern, good and bad. For it is often useful to 
preserve for inspection a bad machine. The professor explains the reason why 
it did not answer the purpose ; and this either prevents another person from 
spending his time and money in pursuit of the same impracticable scheme, or it 
may lead his mind to some ingenious invention to remedy the defect and make 
it a useful object. Here is a professor for explaining the use of the machines, 
and for aiding the minister in discharging the duties of the patent office. Here 
likewise several trades are carried on, and persons are taught gratis the use of 
the tools by practice as well as by lectures. 
4. The Museum of Natural History. This consists of a botanical garden, 
an extensive menagery, or collection of wild animals, and large cabinets of 
minerals. To this institution are attached several professorships ; and lectures 
are given in every branch of natural history. 
5. The Museum of Arts; meaning the fine arts. This is the school for 
painting, statuary, music, &c. The great splendor of this establishment con- 
sists chiefly in its vast gallery of pictures, and its awful synod of statues. 
These are as far beyond description as they are above comparison. Since, to 
the collections of the kings of France, the government has added so many of 
the best productions of Italy, P'landers and Holland, there is no other assem- 
blage of the works of art where students can be so well accommodated with 
variety and excellence, to excite their emulation and form their taste. 
6. The National Library. This collection is likewise unparalleled both 
for the number and variety of works it contains ; having about five hundred 
thousand volumes, in print and manuscript; besides all of value that is extant 
in maps, charts, engravings ; and a museum of coins, medals and inscriptions, 
ancient and modern. 
8. The Mint; which is a scientific as well as a laboratorial establishment; 
where lectures are given in mineralogy, metallurgy, and chemistry. 
9. The Military School; where field engineering, fortification, gunnery, 
attack and defence of places, and the branches of mathematics, necessary to 
these sciences, are taught by experienced masters. 
10. The Prytaneum ; which is an excellent school of general science, more 
especially military and nautical; but it is exclusively devoted to what are called 
enfans de la patrie, children of the country, or boys adopted by the government, 
and educated at the public expense. They are generally those whose fathers 
have died in the public service. But this distinction is often conferred on 
others, through particular favor. The school is supplied with able instructors ; 
and the pupils are very numerous. They are taught to consider themselves 
entirely devoted to the service of their country, as is indicated both by their own 
appellation and that of their seminary. 
11. The College of France retains all its ancient advantages, and has been 
improved by the revolution. 183] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
93 
12. The School of Medicine, united with anatomy and surgery, is in able 
hands, and well conducted. 
13. The Veterinary School; where practical and scientific lessons are given 
on the constitution and diseases of animals. 
14. The Observatory is an appellation still retained by an eminent school of 
astronomy ; though its importance has grown far beyond what is indicated by its 
name. It publishes the annual work called la connaissance des terns; a work 
not only of national but of universal utility for navigators and astronomers. 
15. Another institution, whose functions have outgrown its name, is the 
Bureau of Longitude. It not only offers premiums for discoveries, tending to 
the great object of finding an easy method of ascertaining the longitude at sea, 
and judges of their merit; but it is the encourager and depositary of all nautical 
and geographical discoveries ; and, in conjunction with the school of astronomy 
and that of natural history, it directs and superintends such voyages of discovery 
as the government chooses to undertake. 
16. The last public establishment for liberal instruction, that I shall mention 
in the capital, though not the only remaining one that might be named, is the 
Polytechnic School. This, for the variety of sciences taught, the degree of 
previous attainment necessary for admission, the eminent talents of the profes- 
sors, and the high state of erudition to which the pupils are carried, is doubtless 
the first institution in the world. 
The Prytaneum, the Polytechnic School, the Museum of Arts, the Con- 
servatory of Arts, and the Veterinary School, are new institutions, established 
during the revolution. The others existed before ; but most of them have 
been much improved. There were likewise erected during the same period, 
a great number of provincial colleges. The general provision was to have one 
in each county, or department, of which there are upwards of a hundred in 
France. The provision likewise extended to what are called primary schools, 
to be erected and multiplied in every town and village. This is also executed 
in part, but not completely. 
On the whole, the business of education in France is on a much better 
footing at present than it ever was before the revolution. The clamor that 
was raised by the emigrants against the convention, reproaching them with 
having destroyed education, were unfounded, and, we may almost say, the 
reverse of truth. Their plans on this subject were great, and in general good ; 
much good indeed has grown out of them ; though they have not been pursued 
by the government during its subsequent changes, in the manner contemplated 
by the projectors. 
Besides the public foundations, established and partly supported by the gov- 
ernment, there is a variety of private associations for collecting and diffusing 
information ; such as agricultural societies, a society for the encouragement of 
arts and manufactures ; and another which, though neither scientific nor literary, 
is a great encourager of literature. It is a charitable fund for giving relief to 
indigent authors, and to thsir widows and orphans. 
The Lyceum of Arts, as a private society, merits a distinguished place in 
this hasty review of the liberal establishments in Paris. This foundation be- 
longs to a number of proprietors, who draw no other advantage from it than 94 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[i84 
the right of attending the lectures, and of using the laboratory, reading-rooms, 
library, and philosophical apparatus. It employs able professors in all the 
sciences, in technology, in literature, and in several modern languages. It 
admits annual subscribers, who enjoy these advantages during the year ; and it 
is particularly useful to strangers and to young men from the provinces, who 
might otherwise employ their leisure hours in less profitable amusements. 
If, in speaking of the state of public instruction in England, we are less par- 
ticular than in those of her neighbors, it will not be for want of respect for her 
institutions ; but because most of them are better known in this country, and 
some of them similar to those we have described. Her universities and colleges, 
her numerous agricultural societies, her society of arts and manufactures, her 
royal society, royal academy, royal observatory, British Museum, marine and 
military academies, her society for exploring the interior of Africa, her mis- 
sionary society, and her board of longitude, are probably familiar to most of 
the readers of this Prospectus. We shall particularise only two or three 
others ; which, being of recent date, are probably less known. 
“ The Literary Fund, for the relief of indigent authors and their families, is 
an institution of extensive and increasing beneficence. It is not merely a 
charitable, but a patriotic endowment ; and its influence must extend to other 
nations, and to posterity. For an author of merit belongs to the world at large ; 
his genius is not the property of one age or nation, but the general heritage of 
all. When a fund like this is administered by men of discernment and fidelity, 
worthy of their trust, as the one in question certainly is, lending its aid to all 
proper objects, without regard to party or system, whether in politics, science 
or religion, it gives independence to literary pursuits. Men who are fostered 
by it, or feel a confidence that they may, in case of need, partake of its munifi- 
cence, become bold in the developement of useful truths ; they are not discour- 
aged by the dread of opposing the opinions of vulgar minds, whether among 
members of the government or powerful individuals. 
This generous and energetic establishment owes its foundation to David 
Williams ; whose luminous writings, as well as other labors, in favor of liberty 
and morals, are well known in this country. It was a new attempt to utilize the 
gifts of fortune, and the efforts of timid merit. It was not till after many years 
of exertion by its patriotic founder, that the institution assumed a vigorous ex- 
istence, became rich by the donations of the opulent, and popular from the 
patronage of the first names in the kingdom. It was from this fund that the 
one of a similar nature in Paris was copied; but the latter is hitherto far in- 
ferior to the former, both in its endowments and its activity. 
On the other hand, the Royal Institution and the London Institution have 
been copied from the Lyceum in Paris. But in these instances the copies have 
already equalled, if not surpassed, the original. 
We have traced this rapid sketch of what is doing for the advancement of 
liberal knowledge and public improvements in other countries, for the sake of 
grouping the whole in one general view ; that we may compare their establish- 
ments with our situation, our wants, our means, and our prospects ; reject what 
is unsuitable to us, adopt such as would be useful, and organise them as shall 
be advantageous in our National Institution. 185] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
95 
It is proposed, as already observed, that this Institution should combine 
the two great objects, research and instruction. It is expected from every 
member that he will employ his talent gratuitously in contributing to the first 
of these objects. The second will be the special occupation of a branch of the 
Institution, to be stiled the Professorate. And, as it is expected from the mem- 
bers of this branch, that they devote their time as well as talents to the labor of 
instruction, they will receive a suitable compensation, to be fixed by the board 
of trustees. 
The members of the National Institution shall be elected from citizens of 
the United States, eminent in any of the liberal sciences, whether physical, 
moral, political, or economical ; in literature, arts, agriculture ; in mechanical, 
nautical, or geographical discoveries. The number of members shall at no 
time exceed the decuple of the number of states, composing the confederation 
of the United States. But in addition to these, it may elect honorary mem- 
bers abroad, not exceeding in number one half of that of its members. And 
it may likewise elect corresponding members within the United States, or else- 
where, not exceeding the last-mentioned proportion. 
The members of the Institution may divide themselves into several sections, 
for their more convenient deliberations on the objects of their several pursuits, 
not exceeding five sections. Each section shall keep a register of its proceed- 
ings. It shall be the duty of each section to nominate candidates for members 
of the Institution, suitable for such section. Which nomination, if there be 
vacancies, shall entitle such candidates to be balloted for at the general 
meetings. 
There shall be a Chancellor of the National Institution ; whose duty it shall 
be to superintend its general concerns. He shall, in the first instance, be 
appointed by the President of the United States ; and hold his office during the 
pleasure of the Institution. He shall preside in its general meetings ; direct 
the order of its deliberations, and sign the diplomas of its members. He 
shall be president of the board of trustees ; and, in consequence of their ap- 
propriations, order the payment of monies, and otherwise carry into execution 
their ordinances and resolutions. He shall be director of the Professorate ; 
order the courses of lectures and other modes of instruction, and objects of 
study ; confer degrees in the central university ; appoint examiners, either at 
the district colleges or at the central university, for the admission of students 
into the latter ; fill vacancies in the Professorate, until the next meeting of the 
board of trustees ; and he shall have power to suspend from office a professor, 
until the time of such meeting. He shall instruct and direct in their mission, 
such travelling professors as the board of trustees shall employ, for the objects 
of science, in our country or abroad. 
The board of trustees shall consist of fifteen members ; they shall be first 
appointed by the President of the United States, and hold their office during 
the pleasure of the Institution. They shall give bonds with surety for the 
faithful execution of their trust. They and the chancellor are of course mem- 
bers of the Institution. As soon as convenient after their appointment, they 
are to assemble at the seat of government, elect by ballot fifteen additional 
members of the Institution, appoint three professors, and transact such other 96 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[i 86 
business as they may think proper. But no more than the second fifteen mem- 
bers of the Institution shall be elected, until the last Wednesday in November 
next. On which day a general meeting of the Institution shall be held at the 
seat of government; and the members then present may proceed to elect fifteen 
additional members. Two months after which, another election of fifteen 
members may take place ; but no more till the November then next. Thus they 
may proceed to hold two elections in each year, of fifteen members each, if 
they think proper, till the whole number allowed by law shall be elected. The 
Institution will fill its own vacancies, and those in the board of trustees, ap- 
point its treasurer and secretaries ; and, on all occasions after the first, elect the 
chancellor. 
The chancellor and board of trustees shall have the sole management of 
the funds of the Institution, whether in lands or movables ; they shall organise 
the Professorate, appoint the professors and other masters and teachers ; assign 
them their compensations, and remove them at pleasure. They shall establish 
a central university, at or near the seat of government, and such other universi- 
ties, colleges, and schools of education, as the funds of the Institution will 
enable them to do, whether in the city of Washington, or in other parts of the 
United States ; and make the necessary regulations for the government and dis- 
cipline of the same. They may likewise establish printing-presses for the use 
of the Institution, laboratories, libraries, and apparatus for the sciences and the 
arts, and gardens for botany and agricultural experiments. 
Thus organised, and with proper endowments, the National Institution will 
be able to expand itself to a large breadth of public utility. It will, by its 
correspondence, its various establishments, its premiums, its gratuities, and 
other encouragements, excite a scrupulous attention to the duties of education 
in every part of the United States. By printing school books in the vast quan- 
tities that are wanted, and selling them at prime cost, it will furnish them at 
one third of the price usually demanded ; and by an able selection or composi- 
tion of such as are best adapted to the purpose, it will give a uniformity to the 
moral sentiment, a republican energy to the character, a liberal cast to the mind 
and manners, of the rising and following generations. None will deny that 
these things are peculiarly essential to the people of this country; for the pres- 
ervation of their republican principles, and especially of their federal system. 
Add to this the advantages that the government will draw, in its projected 
plans of public improvement, from this facility of concentrating the rays of 
science upon the most useful objects ; from directing the researches of so many 
of the ablest men in the country, to the best modes of increasing its production 
and its happiness ; from having a greater choice of young and well-taught 
engineers, civil and military ; as well as mechanicians, architects, geologists; 
and men versed in the mathematical sciences and political economy. 
Attached to the university in Washington, and under the direction of the 
Institution, might be the best position for the military academy, now at West 
Point, and likewise for the naval academy, and for the mint of the United 
States. The patent office is now an embarrassing appendage to the department 
of state. It might occupy very usefully one of the professors of this university. 
The machines and models belonging to it would be useful ornaments in a 187] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
97 
lecture room, where mechanics, hydraulics, and other branches of natural phi- 
losophy are taught. Such professor might be the proper person to examine the 
applications for patents, and report upon their merits ; the chancellor might 
grant the patent. It might likewise be advantageous, that the trustees, when 
the state of their funds will permit, should purchase from their proprietors 
such inventions as, in their opinion, might be of immediate and general use ; 
and perhaps the chancellor might be authorized to refuse patents for impracti- 
cable things, and expose to public view such impostors as sometimes apply for 
them, with the intention of imposing upon the credulous, by selling their falla- 
cious privileges either in whole or in part. 
The geographical and mineralogical archives of the nation might be better 
placed in this university, than elsewhere. Being confided to professors, they 
might draw advantage from them in the course of their instructions. Thus the 
Institution might become a general depositary of the results of scientific re- 
search ; of experiments in arts, manufactures, and husbandry ; and of discoveries 
by voyages and travels. In short, no rudiment of knowledge should be below 
its attention, no height of improvement above its ambition, no corner of an 
empire beyond its vigilant activity for collecting and diffusing information. 
It is hoped that the Legislature, as well as our opulent citizens, will assist 
in making a liberal endowment for so great an object, and as soon as circum- 
stances will admit; as too much time has already been lost, since the government 
has taken its definitive stand, in so advantageous a position, for the developement 
of this part of our national resources. 
APPENDIX D. 
THE MORRILL ACT. 
Introduced in the House of Representatives by the Hon. Justin S. 
Morrill, of Vermont, and approved by President Lincoln, 
July 2, 1862. 
AN ACT donating Public Lands to the several States and Territories which 
may provide Colleges for the Benefit of AgriculLire and Mechanic Arts. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That there be granted to the several 
States, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, an amount of public land, to 
be apportioned to each State a quantity equal to thirty thousand acres for each 
senator and representative in Congress to which the States are respectively 
entitled by the apportionment under the census of eighteen hundred and sixty : 
Provided, That no mineral lands shall be selected or purchased under the 
provisions of this act. 
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the land aforesaid, after being 
surveyed, shall be apportioned to the several States in sections or subdivsions 
of sections, not less than one quarter of a section ; and whenever there are 98 
G. Brozvn Goode s Paper. 
[188 
public lands in a State subject to sale at private entry at one dollar and twenty- 
five cents per acre, the quantity to which said State shall be entitled shall be 
selected from such lands within the limits of such State, and the Secretary of 
the Interior is hereby directed to issue to each of the States in which there is 
not the quantity of public lands subject to sale at private entry at one dollar 
and twenty-five cents per acre, to which said State may be entitled under the 
provisions of this act, land scrip to the amount in acres for the deficiency of its 
distributive share : said scrip to be sold by said States and the proceeds thereof 
applied to the uses and purposes prescribed in this act, and for no other use 
or purpose whatsoever : Provided, That in no case shall any State to which 
land scrip may thus be issued be allowed to locate the same within the limits 
of any other State, or of any Territory of the United States, but their assignees 
may thus locate said land scrip upon any of the unappropriated lands of the 
United States subject to sale at private entry at one dollar and twenty-five 
cents, or less, per acre : And provided further, That not more than one million 
acres shall be located by such assignees in any one of the States: And pro- 
vided further, That no such location shall be made before one year from the 
passage of this act. 
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That all the expenses of management, 
superintendence, and taxes from date of selection of said lands, previous to 
their sales, and all expenses incurred in the management and disbursement of 
the moneys which may be received therefrom, shall be paid by the States to 
which they may belong, out of the treasury of said States, so that the entire 
proceeds of the sale of said lands shall be applied without any diminution 
whatever to the purposes hereinafter mentioned. 
Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That all moneys derived from the sale of 
the lands aforesaid by the State to which the lands are apportioned, and from the 
sales of land scrip hereinbefore provided for, shall be invested in stocks of the 
United States, or of the States, or some other safe stocks, yielding not less 
than five per centum upon the par value of said stocks ; and that the moneys so 
invested shall constitue a perpetual fund, the capital of which shall remain 
forever undiminished, (except so far as may be provided in section fifth of 
this act,) and the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated, by each 
State which may take and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, 
support, and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall 
be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including mili- 
tary tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture 
and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may 
respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and praetical education 
of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life. 
Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That the grant of land and land scrip 
hereby authorized shall be made on the following conditions, to which, as well 
.as to the provisions hereinbefore contained, the previous assent of the several 
States shall be signified by legislative acts : 
First. If any portion of the fund invested, as provided by the foregoing 
■section, or any portion of the interest thereon, shall, by any action or con- 
tingency be diminished or lost, it shall be replaced by the State to which it 189] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
99 
belongs, so that the capital of the fund shall remain forever undiminished ; 
and the annual interest shall be regularly applied without diminution to the 
purposes mentioned in the fourth section of this act, except that a sum, not 
exceeding ten per centum upon the amount received by any State under the 
provisions of this act, may be expended for the purchase of lands for sites or 
experimental farms, whenever authorized by the respective legislatures of said 
States. 
Second. No portion of said fund, nor the interest thereon, shall be applied, 
directly or indirectly, under any pretence whatever, to the purchase, erection, 
preservation, or repair of any building or buildings. 
Third. Any State which may take and claim the benefit of the provisions 
of this act shall provide, within five years, at least not less than one college, as 
described in the fourth section of this act, or the grant to such State shall 
cease; and said State shall be bound to pay the United States the amount 
received of any lands previously sold, and that the title to purchasers under 
the State shall be valid. 
Fourth. An annual report shall be made regarding the progress of each 
college, recording any improvements and experiments made, with their costs 
and results, and such other matters, including State industrial and economical 
statistics, as may be supposed useful; one copy of which shall be transmitted 
by mail free, by each, to all the other colleges which may be endowed under 
the provisions of this act, and also one copy to the Secretary of the Interior. 
Fifth. When lands shall be selected from those which have been raised to 
double the minimum price, in consequence of railroad grants, they shall be 
computed to the States at the maximum price, and the number of acres 
proportionally diminished. 
Sixth. No State while in a condition of rebellion or insurrection against the 
government of the United States shall be entitled to the benefit of this act. 
Seventh. No State shall be entitled to the benefits of this act unless it shall 
express its acceptance thereof by its legislature within two years from the date 
of its approval by the President. 
Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That land scrip issued under the pro- 
visions of this act shall not be subject to location until after the first day of 
January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three. 
Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That the land officers shall receive the 
same fees for locating land scrip issued under the provisions of this act as is 
now allowed for the location of military bounty land warrants under existing 
laws : Provided, their maximum compensation shall not be thereby increased. 
Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That the Governors of the several 
States to which scrip shall be issued under this act shall be required to report 
annually to Congress all sales made of such scrip until the whole shall be dis- 
posed of, the amount received for the same, and what appropriation has been 
made of the proceeds. Approved, July 2, 1862. 100 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[IQO 
THE HATCH ACT. 
Introduced in the House of Representatives in 1885 by the 
Hon. William H. Hatch, of Missouri, and approved by 
President Cleveland, March 2, 1887. 
[Forty-ninth Congress, Second Session, Chapter 314, Statutes of the United 
States, vol. xxiv., page 440.] 
AN ACT to establish agricultural experiment stations in connection with the 
colleges established in the several States under the provisions of an act 
approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and of the acts 
supplementary thereto. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States 
of America in Congress assembled, That in order to aid in acquiring and diffus- 
ing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on 
subjects connected with agriculture, and to promote scientific investigation and 
experiment respecting the principles and applications of agricultural science, 
there shall be established, under direction of the college or colleges or agricul- 
tural department of colleges in each State or Territory established, or which 
may hereafter be established, in accordance with the provisions of an act 
approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled “ An act 
donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide 
colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts,” or any of the 
supplements to said act, a department to be known and designated as an 
“agricultural experiment station ” : Provided, That in any State or Territory 
in which two such colleges have been or may be so established the appropriation 
hereinafter made to such State or Territory shall be equally divided between 
such colleges, unless the legislature of such State or Territory shall otherwise 
direct. 
Sec. 2. That it shall be the object and duty of said experiment stations 
to conduct original researches or verify experiments on the physiology of plants 
and animals ; the diseases to which they are severally subject, with the remedies 
for the same ; the chemical composition of useful plants at their different stages 
of growth ; the comparative advantages of rotative cropping as pursued under 
a varying series of crops ; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimation ; 
the analysis of oils and water ; the chemical composition of manures, natural 
or artificial, with experiments designed to test their comparative effects on crops 
of different kinds ; the adaptation and value of grasses and forage plants ; the 
composition and digestibility of the different kinds of food for domestic animals ; 
the scientific and economic questions involved in the production of butter and 
cheese ; and such other researches or experiments bearing directly on the agri- 
cultural industry of the United States as may in each case be deemed advisable, 
having due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective States 
or Territories. 
Sec. 3. That in order to secure, as far as practicable, uniformity of methods 
and results in the work of said stations, it shall be the duty of the United States I9I] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
101 
Commissioner of Agriculture to furnish forms, as far as practicable, for the tabu- 
lation of results of investigation or experiments ; to indicate, from time to time, 
such lines of inquiry as to him shall seem most important; and, in general, to 
furnish such advice and assistance as will best promote the purposes of this act. 
It shall be the duty of each of said stations annually, on or before the first day 
of February, to make to the governor of the State or Territory in which it is 
located a full and detailed report of its operations, including a statement of re- 
ceipts and expenditures, a copy of which report shall be sent to each of said 
stations, to the said Commissioner of Agriculture, and to the Secretary of the 
Treasury of the United States. 
Sec. 4. That bulletins or reports of progress shall be published at said sta- 
tions at least once in three months, one copy of which shall be sent to each 
newspaper in the States or Territories in which they are respectively located, 
and to such individuals actually engaged in farming as may request the same, 
and as far as the means of the station will permit. Such bulletins or reports 
and the annual reports of said stations shall be transmitted in the mails of the 
United States free of charge for postage, under such regulations as the Post- 
master-General may from time to time prescribe. 
Sec. 5. That for the purpose of paying the necessary expenses of conduct- 
ing investigations and experiments and printing and distributing the results as 
hereinbefore described, the sum of fifteen thousand dollars per annum is hereby 
appropriated to each State, to be specially provided for by Congress in the 
appropriations from year to year, and to each Territory entitled under the pro- 
visions of section eight of this act, out of any money in the Treasury proceeding 
from the sales of public lands, to be paid in equal quarterly payments, on the 
first day of January, April, July, and October in each year, to the treasurer or 
other officer duly appointed by the governing boards of said colleges to receive 
the same, the first payment to be made on the first day of October, eighteen 
hundred and eighty-seven : Provided, however, That out of the first annual 
appropriation so received by any station an amount not exceeding one fifth 
may be expended in the erection, enlargement, or repair of a building or build- 
ings necessary for carrying on the work of such station ; and thereafter an 
amount not exceeding five per centum of such annual appropriation may be so 
expended, 
Sec. 6. That whenever it shall appear to the Secretary of the Treasury 
from the annual statement of receipts and expenditures of any of said stations 
that a portion of the preceding annual appropriation remains unexpended, such 
amount shall be deducted from the next succeeding annual appropriation to 
such station, in order that the amount of money appropriated to any station 
shall not exceed the amount actually and necessarily required for its maintenance 
and support. 
Sec. 7. That nothing in this act shall be construed to impair or modify the 
legal relation existing between any of the said colleges and the government of 
the States or Territories in which they are respectively located. 
Sec. 8. That in States having colleges entitled under this section to the 
benefits of this act and having also agricultural experiment stations established 
by law separate from said colleges, such States shall be authorized to apply such 
benefits to experiments at stations so established by such States ; and in case 102 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[i92 
any State shall have established under the provisions of said act of July second 
aforesaid, an agricultural department or experimental station, in connection 
with any university, college, or institution not distinctively an agricultural 
college or school, and such State shall have established or shall hereafter 
establish a separate agricultural college or school, which shall have connected 
therewith an experimental farm or station, the legislature of such State may 
apply in whole or in part the appropriation by this act made, to such separate 
agricultural college or school, and no legislature shall by contract express or 
implied disable itself from so doing. 
Sec. 9. That the grants of moneys 1 authorized by this act are made subject 
to the legislative assent of the several States and Territories to the purposes of 
said grants : Provided, That payment of such instalments of the appropriation 
herein made as shall become due to any State before the adjournment of the 
regular session of its legislature meeting next after the passage of this act shall 
be made upon the assent of the governor thereof duly certified to the Secretary 
of the Treasury. 
Sec. 10. Nothing in this act shall be held or construed as binding the 
United States to continue any payment from the Treasury to any or all the 
States or institutions mentioned in this act, but Congress may at any time 
amend, suspend, or repeal any or all the provisions of this act. 
Approved, March 2, 1887. 
APPENDIX E. 
A LIST OF STATE UNIVERSITIES AND FEDERAL-LAND-GRANT COLLEGES, WITH 
THE DATES OF THEIR ORGANIZATION. 
Note.—Most of the State Universities owe their origin wholly or in part 
to federal land grants in connection with the Morrill Act, or by special 
acts passed by Congress. The thirteen original States and six others have 
received no land grants, except for agricultural and mechanical colleges. 
All the territories have had land grants for educational purposes, except the 
District of Columbia and Alaska. Of the thirteen original States only four— 
Virginia, Georgia, and North and South Carolina—have founded and main- 
tained State universities ; six — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire—founded in colonial days 
institutions which have become practically State universities; New York, 
though fairly liberal to its colleges, has never cencentrated its patronage ; 
Maryland and Delaware have practically ignored the university question. 
In the other States without grants—Vermont, Maine, Kentucky, Tennessee, 
Texas, and West Virginia—the efforts to found State institutions have been 
attended with much difficulty, and it is evident to one who studies the subject 
1 The grants of money to carry out the provisions of this act amounted in 
1887-88 to $585,000, in 1S88-89 to $595,000, in 1889-90 to $600,000, and for 
1890-91 the amount estimated is $630,000. 193] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
103 
that their educational systems are probably much less prosperous than they 
would have been had they received assistance from the general government 
similar to that given their sister States.1 
In the following list institutions wholly or in part supported by the State 
are designated by the symbol f. Institutions organized or extended in scope 
in connection with the Morrill Act of 1862 are designated by the symbol *. 
Institutions maintained in connection with the Hatch Act are designated by 
the symbol A. Institutions whose names are indented, are suboidinated to 
those which precede them. 
The total amount of land given by the general government, for State educa- 
tional work, has been 1,995,920 acres. The total amount appropriated by the 
States for higher education is shown by Blackmar to have been $27,475,646. 
I am indebted to Prof. F. W. Blackmar, Prof. W. O. Atwater, and Mr. A. 
C. True for the facts embodied in the following tables : 
ALABAMA. 
{Territory, 1817; State, 1819; Land Grant, 1818-19.) 
f University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, 1819-21. 
* Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College, Auburn, 1872. 
A Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn, 1883. 
Af Canebrake Agricultural Experiment Station, Uniontown, 1885. 
Alabama Historical Society, Tuscaloosa, 1851. 
No scientific society in the State. 
ALASKA. 
{Territory, 1872.) 
No colleges. 
Alaska Historical Society, Sitka, 1890. 
Society of Alaskan Natural History and Ethnology, Sitka, 1887. 
ARIZONA. 
(Territory, 1863; Land Grant, 1881.) 
University of Arizona, Tucson, 1889. 
College of Agriculture, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, 1889. 
No historical or scientific society. 
ARKANSAS. 
{Territory, 1819 ; State, 1836 ; Land Grant, 1836.) 
*f Arkansas Industrial University, Fayetteville, 1868-72. 
A Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Fayetteville, 1888. 
(Sub-stations at Pine Bluff, Newport, and Texarkana.) 
Arkansas Historical Society, Little Rock. 
No scientific society. 
1 See Blackmar’s: “ Federal and State Aid to Higher Education.” 104 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
LI94 
CALIFORNIA. 
(Territory, 1846 ; State, 1850 ; Land Grant, 1853.) 
f* University of California, Berkeley, 1868-69. 
College of Agriculture, Mechanics, Mining, Engineering, and 
Chemistry, Univ. of Cal., Berkeley, 1866-68. 
A Agricultural Experiment Station, Univ. of Cal., Berkeley, 
1876 and 1888. 
(Outlying stations at Paso Robles, Tulare, Jackson, Cupertino, Fresno, 
Mission San Jose.) 
California Plistorical Society, San Francisco. 
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, 1854. 
COLORADO. 
(Territory, 1861 ; State, 1876 ; Land Grant, 1875.) 
f University of Colorado, Boulder, 1875-77. 
* State Agricultural College, Ft. Collins, 1879. 
A Agricultural Experiment Station of Colorado, Ft. Collins, 1888. 
(Sub-stations at Del Norte and Rocky Ford.) 
f State School of Mines, Golden, 1874. 
Colorado State Historical Society, Denver. 
Colorado Scientific Society, Denver. 
CONNECTICUT. 
(Settled, 1634 ; State, 1788.) 
Yale University, New Haven, 1700. 
* Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, 1847 and 1864. 
Af Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, 
1875 and 1877. 
Storrs Agricultural School, Mansfield, 1881. 
Storrs School Agricultural Experiment Station, 1888. 
Connecticut Academy of Sciences, New Haven, 1799. 
Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, 1825. 
DAKOTA, NORTH. 
(Territory of Dakota, 1861 ; State, 1889; Land Grant, 1881.) 
(?) University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, 1883-4. 
North Dakota Agricultural College, Fargo, 1890. 
No State historical or scientific society. 
DAKOTA, SOUTH. 
(State, 1889 ; Land Grant, 1881.) 
(?) University of South Dakota, Vermillion, 1883. 
f South Dakota Agricultural College, Brookings, 1889. 
South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, Brookings, 
1888. 
South Dakota School of Mines, Rapid City, 1886. 
No State historical or scientific society. 195] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
105 
DELAWARE. 
[Settled, 1638 ; State, 1787.) 
f* Delaware College, Newark, 1834, 1851, and 1871. 
A Delaware College Agricultural Experiment Station, Newark, 
1888. 
Historical Society of Delaware, Wilmington, 1884. 
No scientific society. 
FLORIDA. 
(Territory, 1821 ; State, 1845 ; Land Grant, 1845.) 
* Florida State Ag’l. and Mechanical College, Lake City, 1884. 
A Agricultural Experiment Station of Florida, Lake City, 1888 
Historical Society of Florida, St. Augustine. 
GEORGIA. 
[Settled, 1732 ; State, 1788.) 
f* University of Georgia, Athens, [1784], 1801. 
Georgia State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, of 
the University of Georgia, Athens, 1872. 
A Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station, Athens, 1888. 
Southwest Georgia Agricultural College, Univ. of Ga., Cuth- 
bert, 1879. 
North Georgia Agricultural College, Univ. of Ga., Dahlonega, 
1873- 
West Georgia Agricultural and Mechanical College, Hamilton, 
1882. 
Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College, Univ. of 
Ga., Milledgeville, 1880. 
South Georgia College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, 
University of Georgia, Thomasville, 1879. 
+ Atlanta University (colored), Atlanta, 1869. 
Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, 1839. 
No scientific society. 
ILLINOIS. 
{Territory, 1809 ; State, 1818 ; Land Grants, 1804 and 1818.) 
f UNIVERSITY of Illinois, Urbana, 1868. (Formerly Illinois Industrial 
University.) 
* College of Agriculture of the University of Illinois, Urbana, 
1867. 
A Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of 
Illinois, Champaign, 1888. 
Illinois State Historical Society, Champaign. 
No Stat® scientific society. 
INDIANA. 
(Territory, 1800; State, 1816 ; Land Grants, 1804 and 1816.) 
f Indiana University, Bloomington, 1820-26. (Successor to Vincennes 
University, 1806.) 106 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[196 
“Purdue University,” Lafayette, 1874. 
* School of Agriculture, Horticulture, and Veterinary Science 
of Purdue University, Lafayette, 1873. 
A Agricultural Station of Indiana, Lafayette, 1887. 
Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, 1832. 
Indiana Academy of Sciences (unlocalized), 1885. 
IOWA. 
{Territory, 1838 ; State, 1846 ; Land Grant, 1845.) 
f State University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1847-60. 
* Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Ames, 
1858 ; opened for students October 21, 1868. 
A Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames, 1888. 
Iowa State Historical Society, Iowa City. 
Davenport Academy of Sciences, Davenport, 1867. 
Iowa Academy of Sciences, Iowa City, 1875. 
KANSAS. 
{Territory, 1857 ; State, 1861 ; Land Grant, 1861.) 
f University of Kansas, Lawrence, 1861-66. 
* Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, 1863. 
A Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan, 1888. 
Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. 
Kansas Academy of Science, Topeka, 1868. 
KENTUCKY. 
{State, 1792.) 
* Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, Lexington, 
1865 ; reorganized 1880. (Successor to Transylvania University, organ- 
ized 1798.) 
A Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, Lexington, 1885. 
Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort. 
No State scientific society. 
LOUISIANA. 
{Territory, 1803 ; State, 1812 ; Land Grants, 1806, 1811, 1827.) 
Tulane University of Louisiana, New Orleans, 1847. 
f Southern University (colored), New Orleans, 1880. 
f* Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical 
College, Baton Rouge, 1873 ; reorganized 1877. 
{Sugar Experiment Station No. i, Kenner, 1885. 
“ “ “ “ 2, Baton Rouge, 1886. 
North Louisiana Experiment Station, Calhoun, 1888. 
Louisiana Historical Society, Baton Rouge. 
No State scientific society. 197] 
National Scientific and Educatiotial Institutions. 
107 
MAINE. 
(Settled, 1622 ; State, 1820.) 
* Maine State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, 
Orono, 1865.* 
A Maine State College Agricultural Experiment Station, Orono, 
1885 and 1887. 
Maine Historical Society, Portland, 1822. 
No State scientific society. 
MARYLAND. 
(Settled, 1631 ; State, 1788.) 
[University of Maryland, organized 1784, abandoned 1805.] 
* Maryland Agricultural College, Agricultural College, [1856], 1859. 
A Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, Agricultural Col- 
lege, 1888. 
Maryland Academy of Sciences, 1822. 
Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore. 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
(Settled, 1620; State, 1788.) 
Harvard University, Cambridge, 1636.2 
* Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, 1863-65. 
* Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, 1856,1863, and 1867. 
f Massachusets State Agricultural Experiment Station, Amherst, 
1882 and 1888. 
A Hatch Experiment Station of Massachusetts Agricultural 
College, Amherst, 1888. 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1780. 
Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. 
MICHIGAN. 
(Territory, 1805 ; State, 1836 ; Land Grant, 1836.) 
f University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, [1817], 1836, 1840. 
* Michigan Agricultural College, Agricultural College, [1855], 1857. 
A Experiment Station of Michigan Agricultural College, Agri- 
cultural College, 1888. 
Historical Society of Michigan, Detroit. 
No academy of sciences. 
1 State grants have been made to Bowdoin College, 1794-1802, and to Colby University 
formerly Waterville College, 1818. 
1 The appropriations by the State to Harvard have amounted to $784,793, in addition to 
46,000 acres of land. The State has also given $157,500 to Williams, and $52,500 to Amherst. 
—Blackmar. 108 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[i98 
MINNESOTA. 
(Territory, 1849 ; Slate, 1858 ; Land Grants, 1857, 1861, and 1870.) 
\* University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, [1857], 1868. 
College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts of the University 
of Minnesota, Saint Anthony Park, 1868. 
f State School of Agriculture of the University of Minnesota, 
Saint Anthony Park, 1888. 
A Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of 
Minnesota, Saint Anthony Park, 1888. 
Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul. 
Minnesota Academy of Science, Minneapolis, 1873. 
St. Paul Academy of Sciences, St. Paul. 
MISSISSIPPI. 
(Territory, 1798 ; State, 1817 ; Land Grants, 1803, 1819.) 
[Jefferson College, Washington, 1803—discontinued.] 
J University of Mississippi, Oxford, 1874. 
* Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi, Agricultural 
College (Starkville), 1880. 
A Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station, Agricultural Col- 
lege, 1888. 
* Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (colored), Rodney, 
1871; reorganized in 1878. 
Mississippi Historical Society, Jackson. 
No academy of sciences. 
MISSOURI. 
(Territory, 1812 ; State, 1821 ; Land Grants, 1818 and 1820.) 
f* University of Missouri, Columbia [1820], 1839. 
Missouri Agricultural and Mechanical College of the Uni- 
versity of Missouri, Columbia, 1870. 
A Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station, Columbia, 1881. 
* Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy of the Univ. of Mo., 
Rolla, 1870. 
Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. 
St. Louis Academy of Sciences, 1857. 
MONTANA. 
(Territory, 1864; Land Grant, 1881.) 
College of Montana, Deer Lodge, 1883. 
Montana Historical Society, Helena. 
NEBRASKA. 
(Territory, 1859 ; State, 1867 ; Land Grant, 1864.) 
f* University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1869. 
Industrial College of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. 
1869; opened for students 1871. J99 ] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
109 
A Agricultural Experiment Station of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1887. 
Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, 1878. 
No scientific society. 
NEVADA. 
{Territory, 1861 ; State, 1864 ; I,and Grant, 1866.) 
t* State University of Nevada, Reno [1865], 1874. 
School of Agriculture of the Nevada State University, Reno, 
1887. 
A Nevada State Agricultural Station, Reno. 
No scientific or historical society. 
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
{Settled, 1629 ; State, 1788.) 
Dartmouth College, Hanover [1758], 1770. 
* New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts 
(in connection with Dartmouth College), Hanover, [1866], 1868. 
A New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station, Hanover, 
1888. 
New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, 1823. 
No academy of science. 
NEW JERSEY. 
{Settled, 1614-20 ; State, 1787.) 
College of New Jersey, Princeton, 1746. 
* Rutgers Scientific School of Rutgers College, New Brunswick. 
Made State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts [1864], 1865, 
f New Jersey State Agricultural Experiment Station, New 
Brunswick, 1880. 
A New Jersey Agricultural College Experiment Station, New 
Brunswick, 1888. 
New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, 1845, 
No academy of science. 
NEW MEXICO. 
{Territory, 1850 ; Land Grant, 1854,) 
University of New Mexico, Santa Fe, 1881. 
f Agricultural College of New Mexico, Las Cruces. Established by 
Territorial Legislature, 1888-89. 
Historical Society of New Mexico, Santa Fe. 
NEW YORK. 
{Settled, 1613 ; State, 1788.) 
The University of New York, 1787, is not a teaching body. It is in 
indirect relationship with Columbia College, 1754, Union College, 
Hamilton College, and numerous collegiate and technical schools. 110 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
110 
* Cornell University, Ithaca [1865], 1868. 
College of Agriculture of Cornell University, Ithaca, 1888. 
A Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, 
1879. 
f New York Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, 1882. 
New York Historical Society, New York, 1804. 
New York Academy of Sciences, 1817. 
NORTH CAROLINA. 
{Settled, 1653 ; State, 1789.) 
f University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill [1789], 1795. 
* North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, 
Raleigh. Established by State, 1889. 
Af North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, Raleigh, 
1877 and 1887. 
OHIO. 
{Territory, 1788 ; State, 1803 ; Land Grants, 1792 and 1803.) 
Ohio University, Athens, 1804. 
Miami University, Oxford, 1809, 1816. 
t* Ohio State University, Columbus. Chartered 1870 ; organized, Sep- 
tember 17, 1873. 
A Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Columbus, 1882 and 1888. 
Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, Cincinnati. 
No State scientific society. 
OREGON. 
{Territory, 1848 ; State, 1859.) 
f University of Oregon, Eugene City [1850], 1876. 
* Oregon State Agricultural College, Corvallis, 1888. 
A Oregon Experiment Station, Corvallis, 1888. 
Pioneer and Historical Society, Astoria. 
No scientific society. 
PENNSYLVANIA. 
{Settled, 1626 ; State, 1787.) 
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1751. 
* Pennsylvania State College, State College, 1859, 1862, and 1874. 
Af Pennsylvania State College Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tion, State College, 1887. 
American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1769. 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1824. 20l] 
National Scientific and Educational Institutions. 
111 
RHODE ISLAND. 
(Settled, 1636 ; State, 1790.) 
* Brown University, Providence, 1764. 
Agricultural and Scientific Department of Brown University, 
Providence. 
f Rhode Island State Agricultural School, Kingston, 1888. 
A Rhode Island State Agricultural College Experiment Sta- 
tion, Kingston, 1888. 
Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence. 
SOUTH CAROLINA. 
(Settled, 1670 ; State, 1788.) 
f * University of South Carolina, Columbia, 1801 ; reorganized 1865. 
South Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, 
University of South Carolina, Columbia, 1879. 
A South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, Columbia, 
1888. 
* Claflin University and South Carolina Agricultural College 
and Mechanics’ Institute, (Dept, of Univ. of S. C.) Orangeburg, 
1872. 
South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston. 
TENNESSEE. 
(Territory, 1790; State, 1796). 
University of Nashville (Cumberland College), 1806 ; discontinued 1875. 
f* University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1806. 
State Agricultural and Mechanical College of the University 
of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1869. 
A Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, Knoxville, 1882 
and 1887. 
Tennessee Historical Society, Nashville. 
TEXAS. 
(Annexed, 1846 ; State, 1845.) 
f University of Texas, Austin [1839], 1866. 
* State Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, College 
Station [1871], 1876. 
A Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station, 1888. 
No historical or scientific society. 
UTAH. 
(Territory, 1850; Land Grant, 1855.) 
University of Deseret, Salt Lake City, 1850. 
f Utah Agricultural College, Logan City. Established by Territorial 
Legislature, March 8, 1888. 112 
G. Brown Goode s Paper. 
[202 
VERMONT. 
(Settled, 1755-58 ; State, 1791.) 
* University of Vermont [1791], 1800, and 
State Agricultural College, Burlington, 1865-67. 
Af Vermont State Agricultural Experiment Station, Burlington, 
1887. 
Vermont Historical Society, Montpelier. 
VIRGINIA. 
(Settled, 1609 ; State, 1788.) 
[College of Henrico. Projected in 1620.] 
William and Mary College, Williamsburg, 1691. 
f University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1819. 
* Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, Blacksburg, 1872. 
A Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Blacksburg, 1888. 
* Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton. Organ- 
ized by American Missionary Society, April, 1868 ; reorganized under 
charter from State, June, 1870. 
Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, 1831. 
WASHINGTON. 
(Territory, 1853 ; State, 1889.) 
University of Washington, Seattle, 1862. 
WEST VIRGINIA. 
(State, 1862.) 
f* West Virginia University, Morgantown, 1867. 
Agricultural Department of West Virginia University, Mor- 
gantown. 
A West Virginia Experiment Station, Morgantown, 1888. 
West Virginia Historical Society, Morgantown. 
WISCONSIN. 
(Territory, 1836; State, 1847 ; Land Grants, 1846 and 1854.) 
t* University of Wisconsin, Madison [1838], 1848. 
Department of Agriculture of the University of Wisconsin, 
Madison, 1866. 
A f Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of 
Wisconsin, Madison, 1883 and 1888. 
Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison. 
Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters, Madison, 1870. 
WYOMING. 
(Territory, 1868 ; State, 1889.) 
University of Wyoming, Laramie City. 
Wyoming Academy of Arts, Science, and Letters, Cheyenne.